RootsConnectED Tree of LOVE
"Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it." — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The RootsConnectED Tree of LOVE was drafted in 2022 as a way to conceptualize our vision for change and being a part of a new reality. Our collective thinking was informed by our own experiences, identities, and our personal and collective understandings of the work of scholars and educators such as the Anti-Defamation League, bell hooks, Valarie Kaur and several others.
What we offer is a way to imagine the seemingly small ways in which we can build a new reality, considering both our personal work and our collective work in the process. This tool can help to identify attitudes, mindsets and behaviors that avoid upholding the foundation of structures of oppression. We understand that disrupting oppression doesn't happen overnight. We are however committed to maintaining hope and working toward change from where we are at, in this moment. In the words of Bryan Stevenson, “Hope is your superpower. Don’t let anybody or anything make you hopeless. Hope is the enemy of injustice. Hope is what will get you to stand up when people tell you to sit down.” Our Tree of LOVE is intended to help us envision what attitudes and behaviors are actionable to lead toward disrupting oppression and maintain hope towards a new reality.
We chose the symbol of a tree as it is rooted and resilient while needing to be sustained and nurtured. There are external elements that can either nourish or impede our movement and growth throughout these stages but most importantly sustaining growth is an ongoing process that moves fluidly throughout. As we all encounter obstacles, difficulty or moments of harm, a clear vision of a new reality, and understanding the underpinning mindsets and actions that can support that vision's existence can sustain our will to create change.
We believe mindset matters and wonder can fuel change. Our work with individuals, educators, leaders, networks and communities leans into developing an attitude of wonder and the skills needed to care for others in order to lead to justice seeking, unity and a new reality.
Our hope is that this Tree of LOVE can support conversations for communities, big and small and in different spheres of work. We encourage conversations with colleagues, teams, family members and friends to internalize and discuss the Tree of Love and offer the following reflection questions:
What resonates with you?
What stages are you working on?
What is a barrier for you in any of these areas?
More reflection questions, for use in personal reflection or shared in reflective space with others, can be found in our resource ‘Bringing the “Tree of Love” to Life’.
We are encouraged by the work we are able to do with school communities nationwide around the various stages of the Tree of Love and are proud to be a part of the building of a new reality, one that our next generation deserves. To learn more about how to engage with us and build towards a new reality click here.