Home » Things I've Learned » Root Strength

Root Strength

110. Root Strength

My mother had a set of books by Harold Kohn that she passed on to me and last year I read all three of them—each filled with short one or two-page essays. In one of them, Adventures in Insight, Kohn describes the brook outside his study window, and the birch trees that grow in clusters or alone beside the stream.

He pictures the damp earth and how the trees bend in a storm. They bend but never fall because of their roots. He explains that those roots reach out for each other and entangle themselves together so that they become extra strong and he calls them “a fellowship of roots.”

My mother was the oldest of nine children and she ended up being very strong. Her mother (my grandmother) was the provider for those nine children almost immediately after the birth of the youngest one. She had a woman friend who lived with her and the two of them with low paying jobs held that family together. Obviously Granny was strong too.

I see those three women as a part of my root strength. Added to them are significant friends who have tangled their lives with mine, along with my own family. We become, like the birch trees, “a fellowship of roots.”

Perhaps I, too, am contributing my root strength to others. I hope so.

Leave a Reply

Daybook of Personal Faith

daybook of personal faith

Daybook of my personal Faith is written for everyday of the year, with chants, songs, mandalas to color, poems, stories, prayers, and reflections.

Mama and Me

Mama and Me

Mama and Me---Our last three years together and beyond is a book about a relationship, built over 50 years and culminating in Mama’s death.

Graces To Sing

Graces To Sing

Graces To Sing to Tunes You Know is filled with familiar tunes with new words to celebrate times with family and friends, good food and thanks.

Trilogy of Cancer

Trilogy of Cancer

Ann's story of her cancer journey...filled with stories, poems, songs. You will laugh, cry....

Shadorma’s

Shadorma’s

This is a book that puts each of the 150 psalms in the psalter into a shadorma poetry form. Some of the longer psalms have several shadormas.

Women Songs | Peace Songs

Women Songs | Peace Songs

Woman Songs|Peace Songs is a collection of inspirational and powerful music still speaking to our times. Originally recorded in 1980.

Wisdom of Children

Wisdom of Children

Wisdom of Children is a collection of stories of the Grandchildren in Ann's life, their wisdom and her reflections for God.

Do You Love Me

Do You Love Me

Do You Love Me is a wonderful children's book. A conversation between a Grandmother and Grandson.

© 2010-2024 Ann Freeman Price All Rights Reserved -- Copyright notice by Blog Copyright