I got sent a copy of Use Your Words: A Writing Guide for Mothers
As for my Mother’s Day, it was nice and uneventful. I am getting a red (dark pink) dogwood tree for the front yard, and I’m very excited about this as I have been wanting one for years. It’s strange to plant trees when you live a transient life. We bought this house but I have no idea how long we’ll be here; maybe till the twins finish high school in 3 more years, maybe longer. My lifetime average is 2-3 years per house and the longest I have ever lived at the same address is 6 years. I’ve planted tulips and daffodils in the yard, and enjoyed them during this second spring here, but I also imagine them being enjoyed by whoever lives here when we move on. I read that only people who plan to stay put plant trees. I disagree. It’s true that planting a tree is symbolic of putting down roots, but I put down roots differently than most people; I plunge them into the soil like everyone else, but I don’t hold on tightly. I’ve learned that the best way to live in a house is to live as if you’ll always be there, all the while knowing that it’s highly unlikely. This gives the best memories.
An advantage to moving often is the aid to memory that it is. I can figure out pretty accurately when something happened by relating it to where we lived at the time. I lose specific dates, but I can narrow it down to a year or two.
What about you? Do you plant trees in places you suspect might be temporary? What does temporary mean to you?
Planet Nomad 
12 comments
May 15, 2012 at 12:02 am
meredith
By living the way you do, you seize the day, live the moment…you’ve got it right. I once had the opportunity to drive by one of our old places to see if our palm tree was still growing. It had been cut down. That made me so sad for some reason. I should have just left it in my imagination.
May 15, 2012 at 1:05 am
Loretta Bayley
In the first 6 years after getting married and leaving home, I moved 7 times. I found Abraham Lincoln’s quote during this time–“Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.” That inspired me to plant flowers everywhere I lived–even though I seldom saw them bloom. In one house I lived, I planted 100 tulip bulbs and then had to move less than a month later. I smiled every time I thought of someone who had just moved in getting the surprise of a yard full of tulips in the spring. I hope you enjoy the beauty of your dogwood tree for quite some time, but even if you don’t, good for you for planting it and making the world a more beautiful place. ❤
May 15, 2012 at 3:41 am
Kit
It’s always worth planting trees, even if someone else takes it out again later. I remember planting a tree in the front garden of our London home, when I was 9 months pregnant with our daughter. It leaned over the fence somewhat and never grew straight but it was still a tree. It wasn’t there anymore when we went back to England four years ago, but I never regretted planting it.
Here we plant loads of trees and there is always room for more. We’ve been here long enough to see many of the trees grow to a good size and would be heartsore to move and leave them behind us. Our roots do feel more firmly entrenched here.
May 15, 2012 at 5:28 am
Louise
I’ve been talking about transplanting a slip of my grandmother’s bleeding heart from my mother’s garden to this house we’re in now. Even if we’re not here to enjoy it, I love the thought of a little piece of my grandmother left behind in the place we called home for a while (that sounds creepy. Is it creepy? I don’t mean for it to be). The only difficulty with that plan is that I don’t know if we’ll even BE here come fall, for transplanting season.
Our last residence was in the middle of a tree nursery. Just as we’d get happy with the trees outside our windows, they’d up and sell them. No wonder we could never really feel settled there!
May 15, 2012 at 3:17 pm
Susi K (@BocaFrau)
The house, our home, we live in now has been the place I lived in the longest my whole life. It’ll be 10 years in June and so many wonderful memories are associated with this house. We are slowly looking to re-plant our roots and find a new place called home but this will always be the place I brought two newborns home to and that will hold the most childhood memories for my kids!
May 16, 2012 at 2:12 am
Ariana {And Here We Are...}
Even though I’m a TCK that has never lived anywhere for more than 5 years at a time, I am a hopeless root-grower. I cannot actually bear thinking that any place may be super temporary, and generally just dig in, meeting everyone in my neighborhood and planting trees and painting walls. I can’t help it– it makes me feel great! And knowing that someone else will likely benefit more than me from the work we put into our homes is OK with me. Not always easy, but acceptable.
May 17, 2012 at 6:39 am
Esme (@cococroissants)
I like your header is that from the fields in Holland?
May 18, 2012 at 4:57 am
Kim
For the first ten years of our married life we moved 7 times and in a few of those places I didn’t even unpack my books, because I knew it would be temporary. That 7th move was supposed to be another temporary one, but we ended up staying for 9 years — the longest my husband or I had ever lived in one place (he’s a TCK and in my family we kept moving as mom got married and divorced multiple times). We’ve since moved a number of times (and broke the 9 year record by living another place for 10 years) but I’ve learned to make each place “home” whether it’s for a few months or ten years. Pictures go up on the wall, flowers get planted, books get unpacked…
And now we are building our first house (it’s always been rentals or homes provided by our jobs) and I admit a part of me is terrified. Because I know this, too, will most likely be temporary because of our long-term goals, and I’m concerned I might become too attached to “our” home. I’ve never had a place I could truly call my own before, and I just wonder how it will affect me to leave it in a few years.
But I still dream and plan for both the house and the yard… which isn’t nearly big enough for all the trees, bushes and flowers I want to plant 🙂
I, too, help anchor memories by associating them with where we lived at the time.
May 18, 2012 at 11:01 pm
Laural Out Loud
Dogwood blossoms are my mom’s favorite flower. When we move to Brazil she’s going to head back to Oregon, and it’d be the perfect place to plant a tree for her. I hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day.
May 21, 2012 at 10:43 am
Pok Cullar
Great site, thanks for share this article with us
May 29, 2012 at 1:18 am
Maira Palmerin
Its like you read my mind! You seem to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you can do with some pics to drive the message home a bit, but other than that, this is fantastic blog. A great read. I’ll certainly be back.
May 29, 2012 at 10:44 pm
Gabriel Gracia
Excellent blog here! Also your website loads up very fast! What web host are you using? Can I get your affiliate link to your host? I wish my site loaded up as quickly as yours lol