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Abstract

<p id="a734">“But most immigrants love their heritage and stick to it no matter where they go,” someone else shares.</p><p id="0a4b">“And some share their culture while learning from other cultures too,” a voice to the left notified.</p><p id="0292">“I am from the islands, and I go back every year,” a voice in the next row shares.</p><p id="d0f3">Many in the audience tell where they came from and how they can’t forget their roots.</p><p id="a09d">Janice wept as angry eyes glared at her.</p><p id="4e9f">“If you look down on your roots, you also look down on yourself,” Grace states.</p><p id="766e">“Yeah,” a male voice agreed. “That’s self-hatred for me.”</p><p id="232d">“How can you be ashamed of your parents for all the struggles they went through to bring you to a better country for a better life,” another male asks.</p><p id="425e">“Our elders remind us often as children never to forget our roots,” Joya took control as the atmosphere heated up. “We were raised not to look down on anyone or anything because life can send us back to painfully relearned what we forget!”</p><p id="089b">“I am in hell. Looking up at you. Don’t you think that’s enough?” Janice protests glaring at her cousins.</p><p id="52cd">“It’s not them who are paying you back for looking down on them. It’s life,” a voice behind her said.</p><p id="b4e2">“I told my friend, because she constantly look down on her roots and others, she would eventually pulled herself down. Now all the people she looked down on, are now looking down on her,” Grace shares.</p><p id="e1ce">“Because she now has to look up at them,” someone elaborates.</p><p id="c0c8">“So, killing her roots, the tree dies, and her progress and everything else she has, dies with it,” Grace notified as everyone stared at Janice weeping in regret.</p><p id="29ef"><b>We were raised never to forget from whence we came. Our roots sustain life. When the root dies, life and all its elements die with it. Family is the most important gift humans have next to life.</b></p><p id="8055"><b><i>How can anyone forget where their roots are?</i></b></p><p id="f930"><b><i>I am neither up there nor down there, but I am where I want to be, and my roots go where I go. — Annelise Lords</i></b></p><p id="7109"><b>What about you?</b></p><p id="5d6f"><b>Are you up, down, or just where you want to be?</b></p><p id="74e4"><b>Are your roots or heritage with you?</b></p><div id="48d9" class="link-block">

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            <h2>Grace Linton</h2>
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    </div><p id="183a"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YBM8R47?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YBM8R47?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860</a></p><p id="8c5b"><a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtisticYouDesigns">https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtisticYouDesigns</a></p><p id="40e5">Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoy it and will savor more from some talented writers on this platform, whose links are below.</p><p id="13e0">Feast

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on more from <a href="https://medium.com/@gkorosi75?source=post_page-----64b74931a92e--------------------------------">Dr. Gabriella Korosi</a></p><div id="1f8e" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/celebrate-april-2023-writer-of-the-month-carmen-micsa-1feb89bc9a06"> <div> <div> <h2>Celebrate April 2023 Writer of the Month Carmen Micsa</h2> <div><h3>Meet an amazing accomplished woman, runner, natural storyteller, and poet</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*jkVE2sqcniLS75E-XPsDvQ.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="8ddb">Savor more from <a href="https://medium.com/@vidyasury?source=post_page-----2fd96578ed70--------------------------------">Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles</a></p><div id="67a2" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/down-memory-lane-holding-my-lamp-of-love-2fd96578ed70"> <div> <div> <h2>Down Memory Lane, Holding My Lamp of Love</h2> <div><h3>In response to Dancing Elephants prompt 33 of 52</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*ZgWSfl4N97ZUHo8sNp3K9w.png)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="052e">Enjoy more from <a href="https://medium.com/@whateverlolawrites?source=post_page-----1534ff5c0e67--------------------------------">Lola Rosario</a></p><div id="5af3" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/this-is-what-sisterhood-looks-like-1534ff5c0e67"> <div> <div> <h2>This Is What Sisterhood Looks Like</h2> <div><h3>Sharing the love — Dancing Elephants (33 of 52)</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*dZR7K2Rjj1Pr-w05lOYr5A.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="44b3">Embibe on more from <a href="https://medium.com/@sharma.garima15?source=post_page-----3618f40b5283--------------------------------">Garima Sharma</a></p><div id="4929" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/rise-above-fear-a-poem-3618f40b5283"> <div> <div> <h2>Rise Above Fear — A Poem</h2> <div><h3>Elevate yourself through the challenges. And always go back to your faith in those moments where you feel like you…</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*RZPV6nxFI0j3M0lm)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="c83b"><a href="https://thisisanneliselords.medium.com/subscribe">https://thisisanneliselords.medium.com/subscribe</a></p><p id="dc44"><a href="https://thisisanneliselords.medium.com/membership">https://thisisanneliselords.medium.com/membership</a></p></article></body>

Where Are You?

I am neither up there nor down there, but I am where I want to be, and my roots go where I go.

“How did I get down here,” Janice Thomas complained to her cousins at a birthday celebration for one of their friends. “It’s like my life has taken its own route.”

“Because you are always looking down,” Joya, one of her cousins’ remarks, chewing her share of birthday cake.

“What are you saying!” she snaps, pushing her share of cake to her right on the table.

“I think I should say it,” Erica steps in.

“Say what?” Janice asked.

“I am the oldest. I have been enduring her criticism longer than you,” Joya defends.

“You are only thirty-five minutes older than I,” Erica battles back.

“Say what?” Janice repeats.

“Imagine thirty-five extra minutes of enduring her,” Joya points to Janice.

“I think Grace Linton would explain it better, because if we tell her the truth, she’ll hate us more,” Erica declares.

“You just want to take away my victory. I hope you got tickets,” Joya complains.

“So, Grace Linton will tell me what you can’t?” Janice asks.

Joya hands her a ticket saying, “Meet you there.”

Two days later, all three females, sat in the front row of the middle aisle at The Sherman Hotel Ballroom. Grace Linton took the back, green arrows pointing upwards on her black pants caressing her lower body. Red arrows pointing down decorated her black t-shirt. She greeted the audience trotting in black, red, and green sneakers.

She said as she entered the stage, “I have a friend who is always looking down.”

Joya dived in, shoving Janice down Recall Retreat, “more than twenty years ago, she,” pointing to her cousin to her right, “was up there,” she pointed up as someone handed her a microphone. “She mocked and taunted us telling us to keep looking up. We will eventually reach the top.”

Battling memories in tears and pain, Janice recalls, as Joya turned the microphone towards her mouth as she stands, “the two of you warned me if I keep looking down, I will eventually fall down.”

“You weren’t looking down to see if the nail polish on your toes was done well,” Erica reminds.

“What was she looking down on?” someone in the audience asked.

“The small island that she came from. Her parents who broke rules and laws, so she doesn’t have to,” Erica informs.

“She what!” many voices cried out.

“I am so sorry,” she wept. “Everything is different here. I got caught up in the moment.”

“You looked down on friends, family and many people from your island and other islands in the Caribbean. We were raised to believe that hell is down,” Erica reminds her.

“We may have come from a poor country, but we had the love of our family and friends,” Joya reflects.

“When we forget where we come from, we send ourselves back there,” Grace said.

“Amen to that!” Many in the audience agreed.

“But most immigrants love their heritage and stick to it no matter where they go,” someone else shares.

“And some share their culture while learning from other cultures too,” a voice to the left notified.

“I am from the islands, and I go back every year,” a voice in the next row shares.

Many in the audience tell where they came from and how they can’t forget their roots.

Janice wept as angry eyes glared at her.

“If you look down on your roots, you also look down on yourself,” Grace states.

“Yeah,” a male voice agreed. “That’s self-hatred for me.”

“How can you be ashamed of your parents for all the struggles they went through to bring you to a better country for a better life,” another male asks.

“Our elders remind us often as children never to forget our roots,” Joya took control as the atmosphere heated up. “We were raised not to look down on anyone or anything because life can send us back to painfully relearned what we forget!”

“I am in hell. Looking up at you. Don’t you think that’s enough?” Janice protests glaring at her cousins.

“It’s not them who are paying you back for looking down on them. It’s life,” a voice behind her said.

“I told my friend, because she constantly look down on her roots and others, she would eventually pulled herself down. Now all the people she looked down on, are now looking down on her,” Grace shares.

“Because she now has to look up at them,” someone elaborates.

“So, killing her roots, the tree dies, and her progress and everything else she has, dies with it,” Grace notified as everyone stared at Janice weeping in regret.

We were raised never to forget from whence we came. Our roots sustain life. When the root dies, life and all its elements die with it. Family is the most important gift humans have next to life.

How can anyone forget where their roots are?

I am neither up there nor down there, but I am where I want to be, and my roots go where I go. — Annelise Lords

What about you?

Are you up, down, or just where you want to be?

Are your roots or heritage with you?