The restlessness has been out-of-control lately.
It's so bad that it feels like it physically hurts to not be somewhere that isn't here.

I am a gypsy.

My mother frequently called me a gypsy for various reasons while I was growing up and then continued to do so after I became a grownup as I would frequently move from place to place, reinventing myself along the way.

It sounds so corny to say I am a gypsy - like I'm going to go tie a scarf around my head and put on a bunch of jangly jewelry and long skirts.

Well, that actually sounds kind of fun and is mostly how I really do dress, but I don't mean to say that I Want To Be A Gypsy Wannabe, etc. I (or you) can dress in business suits and still have the soul of a gypsy.

I mean to say that it is in my blood to wander which is one really big aspect of being gypsy-ish.

I can't not wander.

And I have not been wandering much at all lately thanks to winter and health stuff we've been dealing with and where we currently live*.

Oh, we live in a great house in a great location, don't get me wrong. JP just said the other day that it's the best house he's ever lived in and I concur with that. But that's not enough for me. It never has been, it never will be. My mother cannot understand why he and I get in the car and go anywhere now that we have this great house. Like, you're supposed to not have adventures once you own a house?! Oh my God, the idea of that makes me break out in hives. It's why I never cared that I rented. Renting meant freedom. Lease is up, time to go!

I can stay in a place for a little while and then I have to pack up and go again. I need - NEED - to see other stuff. I need to not travel the same roads, shop the same places, see the same things. Always needing that while always feeling the need to find that place I belong. The essence of a gypsy soul.

I don't know how people who stay put do it. I don't know that kind of contentedness. I've sort of envied people who have that "childhood bedroom" thing going on...and at the same time it makes my skin itch and eyes twitch. But I can't help to wonder how many who plant themselves in one place really are content or...are they stuck? Do they even know or are willing to admit it? Have they just given in to the idea of what "they" say you're supposed to do?

I stayed put for a lot of years so my daughter was not subjected to my nomadic tendencies while she was in middle and high school and I do recommend that gypsy-types who have kids do the same because it's not fair to them to be uprooted because you're restless. But pretty much the day after my daughter graduated I started packing and planning. She graduated in June and by August I was decorating my new place.
I hate packing, I hate the act of moving, but man do I love the end result.

Anyway, I took this Do You Have A Gypsy Soul quiz and here are my spot-on results:

YOU SCORED 90

Gypsy Soul

You received a score above 50 points meaning that you're a Gypsy Soul!

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. ~ Kahlil Gibran

What is a Gypsy Soul?

There's a beautiful expression that refers to many free spirited people in search of something in life; these people identify themselves as Gypsy Souls.

The Gypsy nomadic lifestyle perfectly embodies the feelings of the eternal wanderer; a wild spirit that is continuously searching for a home, while battling their inner demons and struggling with the thirst for a place to belong. In fact: "Gypsy Heart" might be a more accurate description.

Gypsy Souls rarely like to settle down and extend their roots in any one place, preferring to live a life to the rhythm of their own drums, while not caring much about social convention. To seek for the extraordinary and magical in daily life rather than the normal and average is at the heart of every Gypsy Soul.

Enjoying the boundless freedom that comes with not being tied down or encaged, the Gypsy Soul carries around feelings that behind the next mountain and within the next forest there will be a place of peace: a place they can call home.

The beauty of life for the Gypsy Soul comes in the liberty to live wildly, to dance in the rain and sing under the starry night sky, to belong to no one and everyone, and to speak with their own voices.

To the Gypsy Soul true freedom comes in knowing that when you don't belong anywhere: everywhere and everything becomes home.

Traits of the Gypsy Soul include the following: