Roots

Keep Reaching

One of the most important questions we need to answer, as human beings, is about how we can weather the storms of life.

There are storms. This we know.

They are hard on us, this we know. A storm changes our landscape by bringing torrents of rain or snow or sand, along with strong winds, and sometimes in this situation, things get broken in our landscape.

We don’t want to break in a storm. We want to find resilience within this situation. The intention of every teacher or parent is to equip his or her student or child with the ability to weather and survive those storms, to not be broken by them, no matter what the nature of those storms is.

We all have this same desire for those we love and are entrusted to guide — that no matter what happens in this life, they will not be destroyed by it. And much of what we teach is about this basic form of harm prevention.

We can learn so much from natural settings that experience storms about how to survive and thrive. When I visited the tropical island of Guadeloupe, one of the first things my host pointed out to me as we drove from the airport into the island, was the damage left by the most recent hurricane to have hit the island. The thing about actual storms, like sandstorms and hurricanes, is that those experiencing them can’t get mad about it. They take these experiences in stride. Nor do the trees and hills become angry and resentful towards the winds and rain. That is an interesting first lesson to reflect upon.

In visiting the island, we saw many palm trees, tall tall palms. One of the features of palms that was pointed out to us was the curvy trunks many of them had. These curves had come about as a result of the points in the life of the tree when it had been thrown down by strong winds of a storm, and been permanently bent, but had righted itself in the next phase of its growth, returning to its straight posture as it reached skyward once more. Only that bend in the trunk bore witness to its having lived through a storm and survived.

One of the most amazing scenes we witnessed was a large field full of thick-trunked, heavyset trees. It was clear that at some point, a hurricane had literally felled these trees, and yet, amazingly, in that fallen state, they had continued to live. They had actually continued to grow, in a prostrate form — almost crawling along the ground, but very much alive and thriving. I have never seen something that incredible. It was deeply moving to witness the resilience of life, and it begged the question: how? When I came close to examine these wonderful living beings, I realized the secret: it was their roots.

Their roots had been so deep and so strong at the time of the storm, that they were not affected at all by the storm. That part of the tree held on, gripping to its inner reality, buried deep in the unseen, and had not relinquished its connection to the life source. And due to that depth of connection, life had continued to course through the tree.

Some of those trees had grown limbs that looked almost like legs and arms, holding them up off the ground, as they sought a way to reach upward again. God be Glorified!

Such trees are a testament to the Creator’s life-giving force.

We are invited in times of ease to prepare for times of difficulty, to use our capacity today to prepare for our lack of capacity tomorrow, to use our life to prepare for our death, our youth to prepare for our old age, our wellness to prepare for our sickness, our wealth of resources to prepare for our neediness and lack of resources in the future. Life is full of ups and downs, times of smooth sailing and times of storms. We have this moment that we are in now to put down the roots that will hold us firm tomorrow.

During the times of ease, we must go deep in our connection to our Lord. We must anchor ourselves not in this superficial realm we so often dwell in, but deep in the unseen, a world that is unaffected by storms, that cannot be reached by their winds. We must establish our footing in that unseen realm, in order that we hold onto the source of life and goodness no matter what goes on in the apparent realm of circumstances and ever-changing weather.

“God offers you a metaphor, look: A good action is like a good tree whose roots are firm and whose branches reach to heaven; it gives its fruit in every season by the permission of the One Who has raised it and made it grow.
God offers these signs and symbols to people, that they may reflect.”

What I admire about these trees of Guadeloupe and what moves me is that even in their apparently fallen state, they are nothing but beauty. And believe it or not, their branches are still reaching heavenward. They don’t look like the tree that typically comes to mind when you read the Verse of Quran above, but they are nonetheless described by it. There are thousands of ways to kneel and kiss the ground, as Mawlana Rumi says. There are thousands of ways to be this good tree that our Lord invites us to be. And you can be that, even if you have been knocked down in some ways, or feel low. As long as your roots go deep, and your branches orient themselves to the Heavenly realm, seeking Him, you will be able to give fruit and goodness in all seasons — in all your states, by the Permission of the One Who gave you life and has brought you to this point.

My brothers, my sisters, may each one of you be that goodness that puts down its roots deep in the land of the Lord, not in just any soil.