Escapees September-October 2022

images. Social media has distorted our views on traveling, but at its core, the heart beat of every nomad is personal growth. The unplanted life is one of potential, but squeezing the most out of it requires inten tionality. We are tasked daily with rede fi ning what “home” means, in the most present sense of the word. In essence, travelers are creating their own reality. A choose-your-own adventure lifestyle that might not suit every one. But that’s fi ne. Someone has to be in the towns we visit to run the ski lifts and make the coffee. Roots are choices that play a role. Too often, we allow the root-planting choices of our parents to become our boundary lines. It seems many people have this perspective. “That’s too far away from family,” they say. “What will you do when you have a baby?” These are the consider ations of people who let others decide their trajectory for them—outside forces at work on the inner levers. Roots, in this way, can be a limiting factor. If familial roots keep you from the fullest life, then they do more harm than good. I can’t think of something more proactively life-nourishing than to move and grow. This isn’t a diatribe against roots themselves. Many people I know have happy, ful fi lled lives in the same town their grandparents grew up in. Roots are not wrong. If they’re formed on the path to fruit, that’s a good thing. The truth is, there isn’t one formula for happiness. Planting roots isn’t always the best path to growth. Maybe you’re not corn. Maybe you are moss. While roots are not the enemy, they are certainly not the goal. “American Dream” idealism has clouded the way. The worship of comfort is a curse of modern society— stagnation wrapped in paper and twine. We have one-hundred years to make our lives meaningful. We have to focus on

What some have called transcendence, travelers call wanderlust. In the end, both are about pushing ourselves towards change, fi nding peace and purpose in motion. Dig up things that don’t bear fruit. Wake to the hum of ever-changing possibilities, views that bloom outside our windshields, worlds waiting beyond the glass. Learn to harness contentment without keeping the van in park. Let go of all that isn’t growing. Prune your life. Foster fruit. With fruit in mind, we push outward, know ing that the same road rolling beneath us now stretches out in every direction, ending both at the driveways of our youth, and the winding possibility of destinations unnumbered. It is all connected – a black-top ticket to anywhere. In this way, we are still tangibly attached to the familiar places of our past, but always one step further than we’ve ever been before. Maybe it will bring you back home. Maybe you will fi nd home in the wandering. In a world jaded by competing ideas of happiness, where people are losing sight of purpose, fruit is greater than roots. Stand still only long enough to realign yourself, then seek out the wild places. Celebrate the rain on the metal roof. Wet your hair in a roadside hot spring. Breathe in the things that scare you and all at once make you free: the crisp zephyrs of high altitude, the heat off the desert fl oor. Wash yourself clean in the burning edges of the alpenglow. Become more than you were. Clear your mind, reorient yourself in the present, and search out meaning on the road—ready again to fi nd growth in the wind and moving waters. So next time someone says that you should plant some roots, you can tell them that roots are overrated, fruit is what we are after. This article was previously published in the April/May 2021 issue of ROVA magazine. NATE LAVENDER is a travel writer, poet, and interdisciplinary artist. He’s currently kicking up dust in a 90s Airstream, writing about the dirt life and trying every day to live better stories. You can follow along on Instagram @natelavender or his website, AugustineAlongTheWay.com.

what counts. Roots are pointless without fruit. Fruit without roots can be freedom. When it comes to a full life, I have begun to ignore future roots, and look for the fruit.

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ESCAPEES Magazine September/October 2022