Are we rootless?

Do we need to have a house, a base, somewhere to call home? Will it take too much toll on the children to keep moving? Is it good for us?

Of course, I sometimes ponder on these questions; of course, I sometimes worry. We live a life with no mirrors; we can not ask the next person how they handle these things because they don’t. The worries of a nomad mother are parallel to the concerns of an unschooling mother.

I am used to it as I am both.

I have to figure it out within the family; we have to talk to each other and feel deep into ourselves to find our way.

Precisely this is the diamond in the crown.

A wise woman I know taught me this mantra: “When you compare, you die.” It is like, you have to start over; when you compare, it is like: you lost the game.

Do. Not. Ever. Compare.

So, I take it as a great benefit: We have to make our own rules and find our own way, which means, when we find it, we know it is ours.

Back to the question: Are we rootless? And if we are: is it a problem?

I find this summer of many, many locations, people, countries, sights, arts, places amazing and overwhelming.

I am a bit tired now autumn is blowing in with rain and a bit of cold in the wind. But I also realize it is not about being rootless, homeless, on the wrong path. It is about silence, about the rhythm of life, about the longing for slow.

We have deep roots in our values, in our stories, in our relations, and in our languages. We know who we are and where we come from, what is important and how to get it, and why we do all the things we do.

Now, our summer trip to Rome, Greece, Istanbul, the Black Sea, Sofia, Belgrade, Budapest, Prague, Copenhagen, The North Sea, Sweden, Germany, and Catalunia is on the last stretch - we feel the need for autumn. For fairy tales, sunsets, mangoes, skateboards, friends, and the Mediterranean. Some time of staying in the bus, in the same place, in a language we almost speak and with friends we love deeply. Under the sun.

It is not a need for a house or a home or a lifestyle change. It is the need for a bit of silence, of rhythm, of peace.

Roots do not need to have a basement and roof.

Roots need to dive deep into existence, values, relations.

So much more important than walls and lock and key.

May the sun shine on you

Cecilie Conrad