Sunday Reruns - Roots for Sale

.

It's Sunday again, and you know what THAT means!?! It's time for Sunday Favorites!!!

Sunday Favorites are RERUNS, not current posts - - - if you want to participate, just repost something you previously posted "back in the day."

Thanks so much to Chari over at Happy to Design for hosting this meme, "Sunday Favorites." You may click on the link to find the rules and see more favorite posts.

No pictures today in this repost - - - just words.

She's Selling Her Roots
(First Posted on 6/28/08)

Recently my Long Lost Twin began posting on her blog about selling her house. Just reading that they are selling filled me with profound sadness.

Before I even knew I HAD a twin, much less lost her, she and her hubby purchased a small one story two bedroom (if memory serves me right) "starter" home. This was well over twenty years ago.

Her hubby, being an architect of wisdom and renown, made plans for that little house. They did something I've never heard of before or since - - - and which they say even THEY would never do again because of the mess and difficulty - - - they put on a second story. But what a house it made.

They proceeded to raise their family of five - - - four boys and one princess - - - who is all lady and yet can "whip" the toughest boy at basketball - - - in that home. Between child four and child five is where I met my twin. We were between child three and four ourselves at the time, and our children were closely stair-stepped in age, cementing the bond between us.

This is also where I "met" my friend's house. And what a house. There are pieces of themselves and their children around every nook and cranny. Every wall, every stair, every nail a memory. They took a boring little two bedroom ranch and made it into a family heirloom.

Now it, this lovely heirloom, is for sale. And my heart is breaking.

I understand all their reasons (well, the ones they've stated anyway) and my brain can agree with them and even wish them God Speed and blessings. They are wise people, my twin and her hubby. They would not make a hasty decision.

And yet my heart is breaking, and I ask myself, "why?"

And I know what it is. It is the ROOTS. By selling their home they are selling the ROOTS. And even though they are THEIR roots to sell - - - those roots feel like they are in part also my roots. Vicarious roots.

This, lovely though it be, is the 15th house in which I've lived in my life. That does NOT include my college dormitory nor the house I shared with a friend for a summer NOR the camp I lived and worked in for the next summer.

While there are certain "perks" to having lived in many places - - - like the possibility of collecting many dearly cherished friends and experiencing many places - - - there are no roots. No longevity. No continuing history of setting.

I was born and raised in a parsonage in Wisconsin. No - - - not A parsonage, rather FIVE of them in three different communities. So I cling to Wisconsin as being a root - - - and the tendrils I cling to most are our vacation cabin (which we RENT BTW) and my beloved Badgers.

After high school graduation I spent the summer of '72 (1972, not 1872) traveling around Africa and Europe before settling in my college "home" in South Carolina where hubby entered my life. Since then hubby and I have lived in four different communities and ten different homes.

I find myself with no roots - - - except those I vicariously cling to.

So dear Long Lost Twin, I am grieving the relinquishing of YOUR roots. They are beautiful roots and though since I've returned to the full time work force I have not come to your roots to enjoy them WITH you (and thus the Long Lost part) I have known they were there, and I have LOVED them. And I love you. And I do not wish you to turn back - - - I only grieve your turning.

And now tears are welling in my eyes - - - -

.