Random Act of Metaphor: Deep Roots Unseen in Solid Ground

“Storms make the oaks grow deeper roots.” ~ George Herbert, 1593 – 1633, English Poet, Orator and Anglican Priest

Hmmm, where do we find the resilience to weather the storms and the droughts that come and go in our lives often with no discernible pattern or logic?

As I look out my eighteenth floor window onto the street below, I could be tricked into thinking that unseen forces hit “fast forward” on the time button and vaulted me unaware into autumn. More than a few treetops have changed their colour shades as if we’ve already rounded the corner into the russet and gold palette of September.

But it is not yet mid-August and too early for fall colours. What I am seeing is the combined effect of the long summer drought and the blistering hot days which stole back the few brief rains that reached the parched earth.

The grass succumbed first – turning sickly yellow and brittle dry. Next the leaves on shallow rooted shrubs and bushes curled, withered and fell. A few of these bushes have given up the ghost while others soldier on struggling to survive. And finally, even the trees have begun to look battle weary unable to feed their uppermost branches.

Only the deepest rooted flora has been able to weather the arid, steamy summer of 2012 without showing signs of fatigue. And, as is so often the case, nature reflects back to us one of the realities of our own lives.

The storms of life come in different forms. Torrential rains of adversity and prolonged droughts of unanswered want. Surviving them requires that we are rooted deep in something more than the transient things that money can buy or the brief flourishes of pleasure that easily won victories provide.

Deep roots unseen in solid ground – a random act of metaphor to remind us that we must anchor our lives in virtue, purpose and deeper meaning if we are to survive the seasons of drought.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.comor the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

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