Write: The Family Tree

Typically, family heritage is represented by a tree.  The child is the trunk it branches from there.  It's always struck me as weird because there is no end to how far out you go, and it's going out from the child.  Why isn't it a roots up approach?  The roots are the spreading strains of family that support and raise a child up.  But that's me.

Today's challenge is to think of the Family Tree a different way.  What do you think of when you think of your family?  A roots up approach?  Planks of a house?  Bricks in the hearth?  Constellations of relations (hah, that rhymes)?  Once you have a concept, take ten minutes and write what it means to you.

Click the 'Read more' to... read more. :)



Some families are like a river.  Each small creek joins and runs together, creating a powerful force of life.  Each body of water is different, but they are similar and flow to the same place.  You can see the other shore, trace each route, see how they have shaped the world around them.  Some families are like a river, nothing can stop them.

My family is more like an ocean.  Turbulent, ever changing, source of inspiration.  We can be sweet and lull you with small waves, then grab you like the relentless tide and destroy everything.  The ocean is a woman, after all.  But mostly, my family is an ocean because there is no end.  Unlike rivers, I cannot see the path my family has traveled.  There is no far bank of kin.  There is only one shore and a constant emptiness, a constant journey for self discovery.

But yet, the ocean is a source of life for so many people.  Myths speak of the ocean before any other thing.  The ocean has inspired and given birth to countless generations.  My ocean may be restless, may be horrible at times, but there is something that always brings me home.  No matter how choppy the waters, how broken up I may be, the ocean soothes me.  It calls my name and holds me no matter what.  It will always be there.