Welcome home. I'm Dr. Tama, a minister, licensed psychologist, and sacred artist. And this

is Homecoming, a podcast to facilitate your journey home to yourself. While I will

provide weekly inspiration and mental health tips, this podcast is not the same as

personalized therapy. I'm so excited you're on the journey. If you want to

request specific topics or to submit a poem for me to read on the podcast, email me

at homecomingpodcast at gmail.com. Also to build our community, don't forget to

like, subscribe, and share. Let's begin.

Welcome home co-journers. I'm glad you're here for another episode. And I'm

grateful we have a poem submission for this week and the poem comes from Karen

White. And Karen's poem is about having a mother who live with chronic

depression and the importance of supporting her mother in the ways in which her

mother supported her as a child. And so this poem is entitled The Root. A mesh of

soft matter, no bones or joints, a seed, a speck of tender life, safe and content

in your sphere of warmth, my first home, my last, your eyes, the frosted glass,

windows that I gazed through, then looked into, the only home I ever really knew,

couldn't hold myself up, but then I grew. Like a daffodil, I grew bathing in your

golden light, getting lost in the curls of your beautiful hair, those petals

glistening bright. Your laughter warmed my beating heart, still attached to

yours by our very own genetic osmosis. The physical and biblical cord cut from

us at birth, dividing us into two, but our hearts ever intertwined just as the

grass and the root. With all that love and light you gave, I began to grow

very tall, but too soon mama, you began to feel small. By the stench of

...