The root

This painting was inspired in a simple moment.

My child was learning Chinese characters, and the word of the day was 本 (běn).
Curious, I looked up its origin - and found myself traveling across thousands of years.

In Oracle Bone Script, 本 appears as a tree, with 3 circles placed deliberately at its roots. It is a pointing character, not explaining but indicating:

Here. This is where it begins.

There is a certain kind of wisdom in that gesture.

One can almost imagine standing in a forest three thousand years ago, an ancestor pointing to the base of a tree and saying - not in theory, but in life - this is the source of all things.

As the character evolved through Bronze Script and into Modern Script, its form became simpler, more restrained. Yet the structure remained intact. A horizontal line grounding the form, a vertical line rising through it - earth and life held in balance.

Evolution of the Chinese Character 本 across centuries

In Chinese interpretation, 本 came to represent origin, foundation, and truth beneath appearances. An old saying captures this simply:
Things have roots and branches. Matters have beginnings and endings.

We often move through life assuming change means moving forward. But sometimes, change is a return - a remembering, a settling back into what has always been there.

Life’s forms may change - roles, environments, identities -

but the root endures.

A simple character carried the wisdom of thousands of years:

that healing does not hurry,

that truth lives beneath the surface,

that care begins at the root.