All my life I’ve wanted a home.

My dad, Ed Robb, was a Methodist minister and that meant the bishop moved us from church to church, town to town. When I was 2 we were moved from Marshall to windblown West Texas. We lived in five towns in only 16 years.

In Amarillo, we students cowered under desks during tornado drill. Quitaque’s downtown featured one street and hitching posts still stood in front of stores. In Hamlin, the sunflowers each fall grew taller than we did.

Mom and Dad loaded us in the car and crossed Texas most summers and holidays, returning to Marshall to visit a swarm of family.

But it wasn’t the same as having a real home because we always left.

I was also a traveling adult, mostly for jobs; my ex’s job, my job. Every few years, another Texas town, another group of people. Trees, no trees, mountains, flat, humid, dry, Alpine, College Station, Austin, San Antonio, Laredo, Houston.