I have been in Tel Aviv for a week. My apartment feels as my apartment, the city feels as my city, the bike I am riding feels as my bike....I guess I found myself a new home.
The funny thing is, within one week I know my way around even better then I know my way in Amsterdam (where I have been living the past 6 years). I did not get lost once, where in Amsterdam I still get lost every week! I realized that the only difference from my "home" in Amsterdam and my "home" in Tel Aviv is the fact that here they speak a different language, that the temperature is more appealing and the beach is only 10 minutes away. I even bike the same amount of time to the University as I would bike to University in Amsterdam. Becoming aware that I have the same amount of friends here as I have in Amsterdam makes my mind wonder....How did this place become so close to my heart and what kind of meaning does this have to me as a person? We all travel more then ever before. Through internet and mobile phones we keep in touch with an amount of people we would not even be able to meet in one life time a hundred years ago. Traveling and international friendships have become a fashion. But how many paople feel really at "home" in an other place then their birth place and could easily get lost in time and live their life away from their place of birth? Realizing and understanding that this place, the people and the culture is somehow close to me, bings up many questions. What is this conncetion that I feel? What does it mean? How did it get there in the first place? I cannot but wonder.... "Home is where the heart is". Today I went to Jerusalem and gave a visit to the Western Wall (Kotel). Walking there, standing there one hand touching the wall. Being aware, connecting to the eternal white light, feeling, meditating. It was an intense, deep and extatic experience. Tears of gratitude roling down my face. A few hours later I was still in extasy and experienced an expension of heart. A deep intense feeling of love, unconditional nonjudgemental love, coming down on me. I never want to leave this place....I think I fell in love...
