Twisted Fortune

“Be careful! Straight trees often have crooked roots.”

My first thought – DUH! Doesn’t every tree have crooked roots? Have you ever in your life heard about a tree having straight roots? For that matter, any living green thing with straight roots?

So, why would you need to be careful? Makes it sound like the crooked roots are dangerous –

If we compare ourselves to trees, and from time to time I identify myself with a willow tree, I am grateful to have a complex root system that I can feed from and get nourish from many different sources. Sometimes water is scarce and roots have to adapt in order to continue feeding the tree.

My sources in my crooked roots – I have my Bible, my faith, my family, my friends, my writing….all sources of strength and nourishment for me. Are my roots crooked? You betcha! There are many times in my life that I am in serious need of the strength that I can draw on from all my roots.

I have always read that in a forest many trees have a connected root system so that they can communicate and draw on each others resources – isn’t that how we are all? We are all connected somehow, deeply or more shallowly, and I am able to take nourishment from them and I hope they take nourishment from me.

 “Be careful! Straight trees often have crooked roots.”

What’s so dangerous about that?

I was talking to my 14 year old son about this, it is the fortune that he picked for me to write about – “What you see is not what you get.” So what if the crooked roots hide a dark and twisted nature? He has watched a few movies lately, The Stepfather and The Sitter, where you have seemingly perfect people enter your life and they turn out to be anything but. I will readily admit that I have not watched these movies, but based on his description (blow by blow), I see his point.

We all know these people that are not what they seem to be…we may even have a sense of it. They seem perfect, wonderful, but when you get a little deeper with them, their dark and twisted roots are a little scary. Then there is a choice to make, take them at face value and don’t dig deeper or weed them out of your life and root system. They are not nourishment for your tree (soul), they are a parasite that feeds off your energy.

There is one thing that I rely on, and in fact most trees do – my Tap Root. My relationship with Christ. It doesn’t matter how much I rely on my root system if I allow my Tap Root to wither. If it did then no matter how deep and complex my root system is – a strong storm may blow me over or tear up my root system.

I can’t speak for everyone, but honestly we all probably have a secret/twisted root that we hope never comes to the surface – but in the long run, it is part of who we are. I am a product of what I have done, where I have been and how I was raised. Everything I have ever been through is in my root system – everything you have been through is in yours.

Am I totally proud of everything I have done, of everything that is hidden in my root system – my crooked roots – of course not! I have made a very conscience choice though to let my tree grow straight (or straightish)!

Live, Laugh, Love ~

Vanilla Mama

Despite the constant mess that my desk – kitchen table – is in, I did manage to hold on to this fortune.  The lucky numbers are: 10, 23, 29, 31, 35, 40.