Deeply Rooted & Rising Strong

This Live Painting was created at a Freelife Productions Event, hosted by Mikhaella Norwood & Griff (from "Get Up Mornings with Erica Campbell"). This event promoted the release of Mimi Norwood's Poetry Book, "Fruit: Haiku Of Haikus For The Blossoming Soul." The event spotlighted Mental Health Awareness & suicide prevention, by honoring the Detroit based organization, "Six Feet Over." This organization supports persons who have lost a loved one to suicide. My painting (seen left) was donated to "Six Feet Over," in order to bring hope & promote wellness in their organizations space.

As I reflected on the imagery that I wanted to paint for the Detroit based organization "Six Feet Over," I was reminded of how when I was 16 years old a friend of mine had committed suicide. I was devastated, but it elicited a response within my soul that was unprecedented. That feeling was a deep desire to love others. When I lost my friend, I had a realization that I may not be aware of the quiet pain that a person is going through. If there was the possibility that my smile, hug or kind word could give hope to someone in the midst of their pain, then I did not want to miss an opportunity to share that type of love. In the midst of my hurt, I allowed myself to grow, because I knew that people in this world needed intentional love.

The thoughts that transformed me the most in that time was the fact that I maintained a growth mindset or an abundance mindset, instead of a fixed mindset. A fixed or limited mindset has the tendency to believe that "the current negative circumstances that I am living within is all that is possible for my life & there is no possibility for change." A growth mindset carries the perspective that anything worth pursuing in our lives can be cultivated and developed. This mindset believes that I am empowered to change in the ways that I need to, in order to be a better person for myself & for the people around me. 

As I went throughout life, I realized that the way to maintain long-term change is to make sure that I am firmly rooted, with a solid foundation underneath me. The roots that we grow beneath us, in the soil, would represent our habits, our character, integrity, our self love, a strong sense of our identity and our life purpose. Allowing these traits to grow deep in every area of your life can help make you a grounded person. The more love, trust & self respect we have for ourselves, the more grounded we become, because we are not easily shaken. We must first give ourselves the honor, love & respect that we need, in order to authentically share that type of love with a hurting person. In real life, when you look at a tree, you can tell how deep the roots are because they are the same depth or deeper than the height of the tree. A tree is only as tall as its roots are deep. "The deeper the root, the wider the shoot." When we experience "winter seasons" in our life that feel cold & dark, we are like a tree. In the wintertime, trees focus all of their energy on growing deeper roots into the soil below them, so that when spring-time comes again, they can focus their energy on growing upwards once more.

Once we are rooted, we can start growing upwards, outwards & flourishing. We can display all of the health that we have cultivated in our personal lives to the world around us. With our deep roots, our tree is able to confidently take up more space and cultivate more fruit. In my painting, the tree on her head does look heavy, but because she is firmly rooted, she has the strength to carry the weight, grow & flourish with abundance. Then, with the fruits she grows, she can share the food of wisdom and lessons of her life with other people.

Like the seedling of a tree, you can always have a new beginning. Where can you start again?