tulips speak loudly, when I'm ready to listen

Roots and History
I'm not so sure anything at all really exists without roots of some sort.  Roots provide stability, background, history and a common thread.  Roots also give rise to life and growth.  Obviously, plants have roots or they wouldn't survive.   People have roots usually found in the form of family; and sometimes we 'put down' roots and decide to live in a certain area for a long time.  Everyday objects have roots, right?  Objects are created or designed by someone who used their vision to bring the object into being, giving the object a history through that same vision to bring it to life.

I've become who I am because of my roots and my history.  I may not always like to acknowledge those roots, or the history that makes me who I am;  but I am finally coming to a place - a Wabi-sabi kind of place, that finds beauty in who I am, specifically because of my roots.

 Denial Cannot Exist for Continued Healthy Life

I was observing the roots of a bunch of tulip bulbs growing in water and had an interesting thought about them.  I don't think plants reject or deny their roots.  The roots can be damaged or broken, causing harm and potential death to the plant, but the plant can't just decide to ignore the roots, or pretend they don't exist.  Roots and plant act as one.  Roots are an important part of life.  Yet, I have personally experienced and noticed that a number of people deny their roots - that which gave us life and shaped our very being.  Sometimes those roots are damaged, causing a hardship in growing and moving forward, or upward.  And yet, with a little nourishment and attention even  damaged roots can bring forth more life.  I noticed in this particular group of bulbs and mass of roots there was new life in the form of new bulbs - offshoots.  Even as the tulips were growing, they were in essence, changing.  Changing within the parameters of life they were given to grow in.

Denial of any part of who I am, where I came from, the choices I've made along the way or circumstances that I have had no control over doesn't erase those situations.  The roots and history remain.  I am who I am because of that history.   The best I can hope for is that I will at some point fully flower and maybe even cause others to flower, as in the case of the tulip offshoots.  I am starting to believe fully developing and flowering can only happen by fully embracing all the history and roots, even the ugly damaged parts.