Word of the Year 2020: Build 13: My Rootless Goals

  On Build thus far

1. Word of the Year 2020: Build 1: After the Floods
2. Word of the Year 2020: Build 2: Fronterista
3. Word of the Year 2020: Build 3: "House"
4. Word of the Year 2020: Build 4: Chosens
5. Word of the Year 2020: Build 5: It Takes a Village
6. Word of the Year 2020: Build 6: Elevation
7. Word of the Year 2020: Build 7: Trail Building
8. Word of the Year 2020: Build 8: Money
9. Word of the Year 2020: Build 9: Health 
10. Word of the Year 2020: Build 10: Service and Activism
11. Word of the Year 2020: Build 11: Relationships
12. Word of the Year 2020: Build 12: Creative Life
    

  

This end-of-the-year Build post is about rootless goals I want to achieve. 

The thing about being rootless is that .... I'm rootless, so maybe having a rootless goal is an oxymoron? 

During this COVID time, I've been tutoring one of my descendants - let's call her Sparkle - in some of her schoolwork. We've been reading a book together for her reading class. We encountered a simile, "like a burr clings to wool," and I asked Sparkle if she knew what a burr was. No, but as we talked about its characteristics, she said, "Oh, a stick-tight!" Yeah!

My rootlessness is a bit like being a stick-tight or a burr in that where I end up isn't a sure thing at all. I'm on a ride and maybe I'll sprout roots where I fall off my travel host, and maybe I'll re-attach to another moving host, to be carried off to some other destination. 

This reminds me of the mysterious cup o' roaches in Bernalillo, New Mexico, some years back. 

 

 Cup o' roaches, Bernalillo, New Mexico.

Whose Invisible Hand put the roaches in that cup? Did I see the critters in their original plunking-down spot or did I see them in their second, ninth, or 100th spot? When a random boy ran past me, scooped up the cup, and carried it away with him, where did he plunk it down? What happened to the roaches after that? Did I witness the explanation of the universe?

Seriously, though:

 

My rootless goals for today, maybe not tomorrow, or even an hour from now 

1. Be alert for the place I will root when I'm 70ish  >>>>  AND be open to rooting at any time, because I am not under contract to my current rootlessness
2. Push hard against Goddess Inertia, even in isolationist COVID-19 times. It is not enough to move to a new geographic location each year - it is mission critical to embed myself in the new geography, new people, new traditions - else why am I rootless at all? 
3. Try out new experiments in living arrangements, portability, and minimalism, such as my current auditioning of cardboard boxes as furniture
   
4. Stay curious