We do not stand on the surface of the earth, but on roots that go much deeper.
From The Soul Without the Story, one of 296 sayings written by John Sarris over thirty years.
From Alfred’s journal
The big maple on the east side of the lot came down in Tuesday's wind, and today the crew finally hauled off the trunk, leaving the root plate standing on end like a wall. I went and sat on it. For years I had thought of a tree as a thing set down on the ground, the way a cup is set on a table, and here was as much tree below the line as above it, holding soil, holding a drainpipe, holding a bottle cap from before I was hatched. Switch came and dug at it a while and found nothing he wanted. We do not stand on the surface of the earth, but on roots that go much deeper. The hole it left is already full of rainwater and I do not know how long that takes to go down.
He reads what you tell him and writes a page of his journal back, with a few of these chosen for you. It costs nothing and asks for nothing.
Have it on something
More like it
- Nothing is invisible until someone looks and does not see.
- No one receives the honor of breathing this air who has not prepared to move a mountain.
- As there is one sun, there is one river that courses all our veins.
- The deepest root finds the purest water.
- The wind moves the trees, but what moves the wind?
- No amount of building bridges out will spare you the work of building a bridge in.