Monday, September 9, 2013

Nomadic, Peripatetic, or Simply Unsettled?

Woke up this morning pondering the word "nomadic", and if that describes what my life has become.  Obviously, I turned to the internet for clarification:

A nomad (Greek: νομάς, nomas, plural νομάδες, nomades; meaning one roaming about for pasture, pastoral tribe), is a member of a community of people who move from one place to another, either with their livestock (pastoral nomads) or subsisting on hunting and gathering.
Sometimes also described as "nomadic" are the various itinerant populations who move about in densely populated areas living not on natural resources but by offering services (craft or trade) to the resident population. These are sometimes known[according to whom?] as "peripatetic nomads".

So would a better word for it be "peripatetic"?

per·i·pa·tet·ic
traveling from place to place, esp. working or based in various places for relatively short periods.
nomadic, itinerant, traveling, wandering, roving, roaming, migrant, migratory, unsettled

And then that last synonym, "unsettled", got me a bit, well, unsettled!

All I was trying to do was find a label for what my life has become, moving from island to mainland, traveling to teach and take classes, and then traveling for visiting and adventure.  Hopefully soon I will add explorations and research for the book that is begging to be written. 

I just know that I am in a totally different stage of my life.  I fully embrace it, and love it, and maybe needn't define it.  But peripatetic does have a nice rhythm to it.....
 

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