They call it a PCS (Permanent Change of Station).

Permanent? Ha. I always knew better. Instead, it meant we took all our stuff with us on a move, as opposed to a TDY (Temporary Duty) when my dad (or later my husband) was deployed.

Now with this small lesson in military jargon out of the way, I will move along. By the time I entered college, I had moved fourteen times. It was our life, and it was the norm.

College in NH

Then I married a military man. He was in a specialized field, and while moves were less frequent, deployments were highly classified and often in places I wasn’t allowed to know. Necessary moves were sudden and at times, we met him at the other end of his journey.

I never really thought of it as an inconvenience. It was just the way it was. I don’t even think I realized it was different until I had met people who had actually lived their whole life in one home.

Spain

A change of address meant something else too. It meant making new friends, and sometimes learning a new language. It meant trying new things, and assimilation of the newest culture in our path. We learned very quickly, a place is what you make it.

Germany

And when it was our turn to settle down, and never move again, we didn’t have it in us. In 2010, my husband and I excepted jobs in Yellowstone National Park. Once again we looked at change, but for the first time, I felt outside my comfort zone.

Did my husband not know there were wild animals?

Did he not know we had a lot to learn? Or…

Did he know we would be forever changed?

I miss those days. All of them.

The camaraderie of a people living a gypsy life, the vast knowledge we gathered from our stops along the way, and experiencing nature in it’s most spectacular showing, defines us. We are resilient, and are pretty dang good at loving what life throws at us.

For now, we have settled in Arizona, but look for us rumbling down the road. One thing we won’t change, is turning the page to the chapter we haven’t started yet.

Arizona

Home is where you hang your heart.

Be willing to be a beginner every single day.

Wind Kisses, Donna

Shared with: Lens-Artistis/Journeys with Johnbo