In my 23 years I have moved 11 times.  I use to blame it all on my father’s Air Force service.  However, I have moved 6 of those times on my own, with out orders.  According to James Jasper in Restless Nation (quoted by David Salveson in “The Making of Place”) Americans “move, on average, once every five years.” Thus far I’m ahead of the game, it is safe for me to stay still for another 30 years.  But of course that won’t be happening.  I feel like I’m going nuts if I keep my room arranged the same way for more than six weeks.  I have lived in five states and one other country.  I have traveled all across the United States and most of Western Europe.  All this moving use to feel apart of normal life.  Everyone I knew was in the military, I had no idea that most people stayed in the same place for more than 3 years, six at the most.  It still boggles my mind that some one can live in the same place for their entire life.  What I envision for myself is nothing like that.  Not that I like traveling, I actually hate it, but I might hate standing still more.

Despite all that I cheat the system.  I take everything associated with places with me.  In my room I can contain places, friends, and family.  My room is mobile and packable and therefore so are the others.  Through photographs, letters, and memories I can keep my homeplace with me everywhere.

In "Homeplace", Scott Sanders says " I cannot have a spiritual center with out a geographic one; I cannot live a grounded life without being grounded in a place."  He is speaking of his spiritual connection with the Earth and the increase destruction of the Earth.  However I disagree that the spiritual connection with the land has to be confined to just the land where you live.  I find that the great thing about having your religion connected to nature is that, for the time being, you can find nature anywhere.  If you are connected to the Earth you can be connected at any place on Her surface.

David Salveson says, “A place reminds us of where we came from—and shapes who we are.”  Just because I am not in the same physical place I can still look around me and see where I have been, who I have known, and what I enjoy the most.  When you open my door you enter my world  and my life. In my room I can dream about the future and the past.  I can write and create worlds that don’t exist.  I can record the things most important to me in order to use them later to guide me.  With my mobile homeplace I can always have those things that shape who I am and who I will be.