A Sense of Roots

from Ben's mom

I must be part gypsy. I start to get antsy after I have lived in a place a year or two and when people ask me if I like Olympia, I usually answer "yes" while dreaming of where we'll live next. I do like Olympia, but I can't imagine staying anyplace forever.
I have few roots. My grandparents have left their houses that stabilized my nomadic childhood and there are times when I am driving to my parents' house that I have to ask myself where they live now (even though they have been settled in their current house for a couple of years now).

But there is one place that has been a stable place for my whole life. My second cousins have a place in the Yaak, Montana. If you aren't sure where that is, find a map of Idaho/Montana and go to the north. If you can find Bonners Ferry, Idaho, go east a bit. If you can find Libby, Montana, go northwest a bit. Plant your finger up near the Canadian border, and you have found "the Yaak."

When I was a child, the Yaak cabin lacked indoor plumbing. Gradually these things came into being, though my second cousins who are in the midst of building their own places don't yet have it and have to run up to the old cabin for showers. My dad's cousin Rex brought property when it was cheap and then parceled out land to his daughters. Then his brother Ross bought a piece next door and he and his son have built places too. So there are a plethora of houses and cabins and we can walk up the road visiting one and then another.

There is hiking and inner tubing down the river and trying to avoid the deer, the moose, and the bears. (I still haven't seen the latter but one came in the cabin, breaking the window one year.)

As you can tell, it is all rather remote for a girl who calls New York City her favorite place on the planet. But Yaak is a close second. I am not always sure as to why. I love my modern conveniences and Starbucks hasn't gotten any closer than Sandpoint, Idaho (more than an hour away).

But there is something to be said for roots. Nearly every summer we make the trek for a weekend (or longer when we can). I love to breathe the mountain air and sit around a campfire. I love seeing my second cousins and other family. They have good jobs in cities like Spokane and Missoula but they all come here whenever they can. They are some of the most frank people I know and they have priorities straight. God and family.

I feel as if I belong to this place in some unexplainable way. And I knew I had been found by the "right one" when MJR jumped 10+ feet into the base of an icy waterfall during his first visit back before we were married. Now my son too has discovered Yaak and found it very good. We are already anticipating our next trip.