relationships — Love with Roots, a gratitude blog

Feb 3

Feb 3 Robert and Roots: Payback Isn't Always Hell

Both of us sat down on the ground, our knees weak. Al had just stepped back to tug a branch out of his way when the tree’s heavy root ball snapped the tree upright again. The helmet would not have protected him from an uppercut to the chin from a hefty, thirty-foot-tall tree. The powerful swing of its root ball was terrible to imagine. I was surprised I hadn’t felt the thunder of it through my boots. The thought of one of us--or maybe just our heads--being literally catapulted through the air still gives me chills.

Apr 10

Apr 10 A Neighborly Day in this Beauty Wood*

Rebecca Brin Manlove

gratitude, relationships, Grief, Joy

What had seemed a winter-bleak street, strangers peering at me from behind their curtains as I followed my old dog around the block, became instead a lane of homes, golden with lamplight, harboring kind souls.

Jun 19

Jun 19 Mike Manlove: The Fungus Among Us (Copy)

Rebecca Brin Manlove

gratitude, Grief, Joy, nature, relationships

Somewhere, in heaven or on some other plane of existence, Mike Manlove is laughing at my comparing him to fungal networks. He gets to use two phrases he liked, “The fungus among us? I resemble that remark.”

Sep 16

Sep 16 Where's the K in Grateful?

Rebecca Brin Manlove

gratitude, Grief, Joy, nature, relationships, canoeing grandmas

Kawishiwi, an Anishinaabeg word, is translated as “River Full of Beaver Houses.” I’ve been told there is another meaning that is closer to “a place where the spirits laugh.” When my first step into the river let me know my old Muk boots leaked, I remembered the second meaning.

Oct 24

Oct 24 Grateful for Interruptions?

Rebecca Brin Manlove

comfort during pandemic, gratitude, nature, relationships

We think of interruptions and interrupters as unwelcome and rude. But islands intrude with such beauty, we celebrate their disturbance.

Jul 7

Jul 7 Can Gratitude Grow on Granite? Gratitude Lists as a Lifehack

Rebecca Brin Manlove

gratitude, Grief, nature, relationships, lifehack

And in those places where life is thinnest and hardest, gratitude can gain a toehold. Life won’t be stopped there either, even though we are sometimes astounded that it hasn’t.