Roots

You never know how important roots are until you realize you don’t have any and you never have had them. Growing up and moving every 6 months like a gypsy is hard on some kids. Especially when its a hurried middle of the night move. When the utility companies and the landlord are looking for their money and your mom drank it all. Those moves when you have to leave things behind because there is just no room in the car for everything. It’s devastating to a child. Not to all children. Some kids look at it as an adventure! A new place with new people!

But I wasn’t that kind of child. I was the kind of child who needed roots, one place to call home, a soft landing.

Recently I took a trip to Texas. It served a dual purpose. I moved one of my daughters there and got to meet some wonderful friends. One of whom is my sister by choice. I also got to meet a member of my fathers family. She is the tiniest lady! I felt like I might break her when I hugged her. When my father passed away I had no idea that I had cousins and other family. But boy was I surprised when my step-sister told me how big my family really was! And then the facebook messages started coming. One read “I’ve been waiting to meet you your whole life.” My cousin Nell knew about me from the beginning. And she wanted to meet me! My cousin Jimmy called me and said he thought my brother and I were figments of his imagination all these years. One day we were there, and the next we were gone, never to be heard from again.

But they knew of me. Mom didn’t tell me I had family. I could barely get her to tell me I had a father out there somewhere. So I packed a bag and got behind the wheel and headed to Texas. I had lots of offers for company but I really needed to take the second half of the trip alone. And the moment I met Nell I felt it, roots. I have roots in Ohio where I live but I also have roots in Texas. It felt like home.

It almost felt as though I could blink and be riding a horse out on the range looking for a stray cow. The blue sky, scrub brush, cattle and the horizon never getting closer felt natural. It also felt very much like Ohio. Flat, stark, and strangely friendly and welcoming. It was a long trip but it was too short.

I’m glad to be back in Ohio. At home with my husband and my dogs and the smell of farm country. But I’ll be back Texas. Don’t worry, you and I aren’t through yet. You still have places for me to see and people for me to meet. And California? I’m coming for you someday. I have family to meet and beaches to lay on.