Deep Roots – Marilyn R. Gardner

I was washing dishes and I saw a truck drive by with the words, Deep Roots, written on it. Deep Roots. I like the sound of it. Stable. Immovable. Secure. Wind worthy.

I married Deep Roots. Before when people would ask me where I was from I would hesitate. How could I begin to answer the question? The answer demanded a certain basic understanding of world geography, it required a little time and a little thought. Sometimes I changed the answer (not exactly lying, just modifying the truth slightly) depending on who was asking the question, how interested they seemed, how much they knew.

But then I married Lowell.

Lowell has roots. He’s connected to this land. He was born in Michigan and when he was in 1st grade his family moved south to Kansas. They first landed in Wichita but five years later they moved north and settled outside Junction City on Humboldt Creek Road. It’s where they’ve been ever since. Lowell attended Junction City junior high school and high school. He worked at the Junction City Newspaper. He got his first job at the Apothecary Shop on 6^th street. Their family attended Highland Baptist Church at the top of the hill.

I married roots. Deep roots.

Lowell is decidedly from Kansas. When I married Lowell, I married Kansas. I married Humboldt Creek Road, I married the Flint hills, the Konza Prairie, Kansas State University. I married roots, community, belonging.

The truth is I don’t have deep roots – but I have now seen and vicariously experienced Deep Roots; I married an answer to the question.

I married Lowell and can attach to his roots, resting in the security of his love, his family, his place. More so, I now have a metaphor to better understand what roots look like. For in my faith tradition I am called to Deep Roots – I am called to be rooted in Christ and grow deeper into those roots.

Roots that go far beyond prairies and creeks, hills and universities, far beyond Kansas.

Now I know where I’m from.

I’m from Kansas. Because Lowell’s from Kansas.

Because I married Deep Roots.

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**As you might have guessed, Deep Roots, it turns out, is a landscape management company. They pride themselves on being “Your one stop landscape installation and maintenance provider”. Apparently their “…work is excellent, (their) price fair, and (their) service is the best around”! Now you know where to get Deep Roots if you need them!