One of the greatest gifts we can give the world is to live from our own roots.
Living from our own roots means trusting the creativity within us more than the hymns and creeds of the religion we have inherited.
The Christian mystic Meister Eckhart asked the following question: “What good is it to me that Mary gave birth to the child of God fourteen hundred years ago, and I do not also give birth to God in my time and in my culture? We are all meant to be mothers of God. God is always needing to be born.”
Living from our own roots means not believing what a scripture or clergy person says until we can find its meaning in our own experience.
Living from our roots means treating whatever we read on the internet, or hear from the mouth of a friend, as provisional until we have personally verified it from at least a couple reputable news sources.
It is not enough to read Lao Tzu, I must discover the “Way” running through my own place and time. The Buddha cannot enlighten me unless I am willing to sit under my own version of a bodhi tree. The resurrection of Jesus has not happened until I rise from my own dead endings and enter the common life of all in this present moment.
Again, one of the greatest gifts we can give the world is to live from our own roots.