Visual Journey 54

The Roots That Hold Us

I stood in the kitchen early this morning,

Gazing out the window at the mist still hanging in the air.

All night, I had listened to the rain tapping on the roof.

*

Now, the moss outside glowed, the grass was impossibly green, the bark of the trees dark and wet. Winter was finally gone. I sighed. It was a mixture of relief and grief lifting from me.

*

My eyes settled on a golden leg.

A spider.

Delicately balanced in its translucent web at the corner of the window.

Weaving.

The wild beyond the glass faded and there she was

wobbling slightly, moving so slowly, creating an intricate, brilliant web.

*

I began to think about the unseen.

What lies beneath the surface.

The roots.

The ones that nourish and hold us steady.

I have come to a place in life where I am no longer investing in the seen. The unseen, the process, this is what calls to me.

*

How do we learn to see the unseen?

To face the roots?

How do we share this courage?

*

Whatever we present to the world is only a sliver of what sustains us.

When our outer life conflicts with our inner one,

rot sets in.

Decay begins in the roots.

Are you living from what is seen

or are you nourishing what is deeply held within?

*

Everything must be healed at the root.

We must learn to sense what is hidden:

to feel it,

to know it,

to have the courage to speak it,

to act from it,

to live from it.

When we live in truth,

we no longer fear the visible.

We contend for what’s invisible

in all we touch.

*

And in that—

we return to ourselves.

Balanced.

Whole.

*

So I asked myself:

How is my unseen these days?

How are my roots?

Are they rotting?

Or becoming blooms?

In Gratitude and Love,

Photography and writing ©️Charlene Lutz 2025

***Watercolor tutorials will return soon. Workshops and life are pulling me in multiple directions right now and I am unable to be fully present with tutorials. Visual Journey Newsletters will continue!