Roots

“There are only two lasting bequests we can give our children – one is roots, and the other, wings.” Hooding Carter

When I moved, I got rid of a lot of stuff that connected me to my past. I feel uprooted. You only miss your home, when you don’t have it anymore.

On the last day in my house, I picked a plant and pulled it out of the ground carefully keeping the roots. It is an old country tradition. I’m not sure from what old country it stems from. “Always carry a plant and you will have roots somewhere.”

People aren’t plants. Why do we speak of having roots? Roots are deep and hard to tear apart. Roots are your past They are where you came from and in them is the direction you are going.

You can change a lot of things about yourself  – the clothes you wear, the things you say, the knowledge you have, the places you visit and live, the people in your life, the degrees you earn and businesses you start. But roots are the foundation of your existence.

Will I ever have roots again? The unease of not having a home makes you have to learn to embrace the struggle to make a home wherever you may live. Home may not always be a place. Home is an experience of belonging, a feeling of being whole and known. Traveling a lot makes me feel that I may not be defined by one place anymore. .Maybe home is leaving a piece of your heart wherever you live and wherever you go.

Fly safe,

JAZ