No Roots

Listen while you read:  Alice Merton

I like digging holes and hiding things inside them
When I grow old, I hope I won't forget to find them
'Cause I've got memories and travel like gypsies in the night

I build a home and wait for someone to tear it down
Then pack it up in boxes, head for the next town running
'Cause I've got memories and travel like gypsies in the night

And a thousand times I've seen this road
A thousand times

I've got no roots, but my home was never on the ground
I've got no roots, but my home was never on the ground
I've got no roots . . . 

I like standing still, but that's just a wishful plan
Ask me where I come from, I'll say a different land
But I've got memories and travel like gypsies in the night

I count gates and numbers, then play the guessing game
It's just the place that changes, the rest is still the same
But I've got memories and travel like gypsies in the night

I've got no roots, but my home was never on the ground
I've got no roots, but my home was never on the ground
I've got no roots . . . 

I like digging holes, hiding things inside them
When I grow old, I won't forget to find them
'Cause I've got memories and travel like gypsies in the night

~  Alice Merton & Nicolas Rebscher

Catchy, huh? Alice Merton, all of 23 years old, has moved between cities in Canada, Germany, England, and America eleven times. Tiring of people asking her where "home" is, she wrote this song to make herself feel better. Well, if having a #1 song in Germany can make one feel better, she wins. The song was released as an EP earlier this year in America and seems to be getting a lot of airplay. I like it, although I do admit that it can be an earworm.

When she was 16, Merton moved from Canada to Germany. Feeling lost, she would fill and bury time capsules in her backyard. I like digging holes and hiding things inside them. She would also carve secret messages into her school desks. The first song she wrote was about a lighthouse, as if one would help her find her way home. According to her, "No Roots" is about "never being grounded to a certain place, but having your home with people who love you." But she also admits to a double meaning. "Those who know me well know that I'm up in the clouds 90% of the time--very much a day dreamer."

I have roots. I've spent roughly 90% of my life in the same county, and although I feel less and less connected to that community, I still consider it "home." I love to travel, and I now spend my winters in a different state, but my little acre of paradise in New Jersey will always be home. 'Cause I've got memories.

Do you have roots? If you do, nourish them. And if you don't, embrace the gypsy inside!