Walking Roots

Creosote is one of the desert survivor plants. The polite name for it is chaparral, but we desert rats call it what it is--creosote. It has a method of living in very dry areas. It lives mostly underground. It has a huge network of roots under the sandy dry soil. Every few feet the roots put up a plant into the open sunlight. It looks like a separate individual plant. What it really is is an outward expression of a deeper root system, the same reality as its brother and sister plants surrounding it. A family of personalities all sharing the same inner truth, the same inner life force. Not separate at all. The outer appearance is deceiving. To reveal the truth one must look below the surface. So, sometimes when conditions erode soil away from the roots, one can see the roots of a creosote moving to populate new territory. Life pressing, life living, life reproducing.

-Laura Solberg-