Yesterday while out shopping, I saw the bank building I went to as a child was torn down. A small prick of regret pierced my heart. A piece of my childhood was gone.
The bank building has changed hands several times. But I remembered a little girl saving what was left of her 25 cent per week allowance until she had a dollar or more to put in the bank. She clutched her passbook and monies as she walked in the door. Mom helped her fill out the deposit slip and her favorite teller filled out her passbook with the interest earned recorded in its pages.
We don’t always stay rooted in the same place. Yes, I’ve been rooted in the place of my birth for decades. BUT a dream is calling me to uproot myself and transplant my life somewhere else. In my gardening books the gardeners say if a plant is doing well where planted don’t move it! It is happy. Leave it alone. This was me for many years happy living in my home state with all my family around me. I raised my children in the town I had known as a child.
If a plant is not doing well some of the gardeners say: It needs to be transplanted to a better location. Move it! What have you got to lose? The plant is already struggling. I’ve talked about struggling with chronic pain. Managing my health has helped relieve a majority of the pain. Parts of my triggers are environmental and might be addressed if I move to a better climate for me. I want to follow my dreams of mountains and words.
I’ve had this dream of living in the mountains for a long time. I talk about it so much people don’t believe I’ll do it. After a stressful week I asked: Will I even survive the change? I’m talking about making a transition from traditional working mom to writer living in a completely different environment. In my mind I’m visualizing uprooting a big strong tree and transplanting it hundreds of miles away. It’s a risk. Will the transplant (me) survive and thrive?
Transplanting a large tree takes a lot of work. It isn’t dug up with the roots severed. As I understand the process, it can take months to prepare for the move. Most of the root ball has to go with the tree. The gardeners begin digging at the drip line of the tree’s canopy digging under until entire tap root is exposed. Outer roots holding the tree in place are severed in the process but the tap root drawing life up into the tree’s canopy is wrapped for transportation. If successful, in the future the transplanted tree will heal, survive, and thrive.
I am uprooting my life. I feel like I am in between past and future. Oh…might that be the present? {hee hee} It will take time to let go of the roots anchoring me to the past. I am beginning at the drip line of my life. It’s hard to cut the roots that anchor me in this place. But to get to the future, I must take the steps to prepare for the move here in the present.
When I am ready and able to be transplanted my roots go with me. There is no denying it. Some roots like my house, where I live, acquaintances, habits, will be severed. But the core roots, the ones I need to survive: God, Family, Country, Church, and the connections to my earthbound Angels (family & friends), will go with me. I’m carefully wrapping the roots I will take with me for the journey into the future. These roots from my past are the stock from which the future roots will grow strong. I have to believe I will thrive where I am planted past, present and future.
Grow strong,
Milly
Milly Really! 