Here Joanna Infeld writes of places she has lived and questions she is often asked about it—as well as her own thoughts about where she, as a human, is ultimately from.
People often ask me, especially when I travel, where I am from. I often respond by asking them what do they want to know: where I was born, where I grew up, where I currently live, where my mother was from, where my father was from, or where I lived the longest?
In my case each of these places (six altogether) are different. Usually the person I am speaking to looks at first confused, and then grabs hold of one of the mentioned places and asks again where I was born. “In Canada,” I reply, but this does not satisfy them, so they ask again, “Where do you currently live?” “In Florida,” I reply and usually this satisfies the person I am talking with, and they ask no more questions. But I still ask myself—where am I from?
Sometimes I am tempted to say I am from the moon, or the sun, or Alpha Centauri, just to broaden the range of the conversation, but I know this would be construed as rude, and I do not want to be labeled as such. So is where I am from so important that I am often asked that question, rather than what I do for a living, or what my goals are? I realize that where I live influences how I think and that my astrological chart is designed according to when and where I was born, but how important is the place of birth, or the country we grew up in? Would I be a different person if I was born in Spain or Lebanon, and would I have had the same adventures, friends and lovers if I had arrived on Earth in Mongolia or Tunisia?
I am who I am because of my unique history, but I also believe that certain traits and ways of thinking are established in me independent of my place of arrival or upbringing. I also believe that I have been nudged to move around this planet in search of spiritual fulfillment, and that there is an instinct or intuition in all of us that prompts and advises us to search for a higher food that brings with it a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. If this energy food is not available where we are, we will be pushed and pulled to move and to go looking for it. It is like manna from heaven—it appears in different places at different times and unless we dull our sensitivity by becoming too attached to the material worlds and temporary pleasures, we should be able to hear its calling and arrange our life so we can be where its source is located.
I am here from another world, and I will be returning home, even though I do not yet know where that home is. I believe in a higher destiny and that all humans are from elsewhere, though we do not have a name of that place and are still unaware of the coordinates that could lead us there.
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If you enjoyed this article, you may also want to view other Insights posts from Joanna. You can also read her poem about Hope on our Writings page.
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