Do you have a 'spiritual' home/country/region?

TastyReuben

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A few years ago I would have appointed you an honorary Englishman, and suggested that you and Mrs. Tasty jump on a plane and relocate. You would be very welcome, but England is losing its appeal these days, even for me.
You honor us, truly!

I don't say it lightly when I tell you, we both really do feel somehow separated from our true, spiritual home, that through some mix-up in the Body-2-Soul department in Pre-Birth Limbo, we somehow, as two Americans, ended up with English souls, and we're just trying to get back home.
 
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You honor us, truly!

I don't say it lightly when I tell you, we both really do feel somehow separated from our true, spiritual home, that through some mix-up in the Body-2-Soul department in Pre-Birth Limbo, we somehow, as two Americans, ended up with English souls, and we're just trying to get back home.
That's quite touching. I feel the same way about Cyprus, the reasons for which I am still trying to figure out. I reiterate, you would be made very welcome, just don't ask us if we know the Queen. BTW, could you bring with you that nice Mr Biden to sort things out for us. Unlike in the US, where you have corrected your mistakes of four years ago, we are compounding ours. Anyway, back on topic - off to watch a repeat of a Midsomer Murders episode.
 
TastyReuben and epicuric this may or may not resonate with you, but I believe in reincarnation, and I think that's what explains why some things/people/places make us feel the way it does. Just yesterday I was at an astrology webinar and this is the second webinar I've had with this astrologer. She said she felt a strong connection to me the first time she saw me. First time I met her in person, she started talking about the Israeli company she worked for and her Jewish ex-husband and my eyes lit up. I have always been drawn to Israeli culture and so has she. We basically share the same views on the country and its people (Israel is a very controversial country and a lot of people don't share our views about it). She thinks we've met in a past life when we were both Jewish which explains my connection to Israel. To me Israel is a place with an energy I cannot explain.
 
That's quite touching. I feel the same way about Cyprus, the reasons for which I am still trying to figure out.
I left home at 19 for military service. Moved again, after marrying, five years later, moved again 18 months later, then again, and again, and again, and again, and once again to bring me back to my home state.

When I left home the first time, I remember waiting for the recruiter to pick me up at a bus stop in a nearby city, at 4AM. My mom drove me and waited with me, and the whole time, she was sniffling and wiping tears, and honestly, I couldn't wait to leave, and it wasn't even excitement, I just felt I'd lived there long enough and time to move on. Restless. Always had been.

Married and lived amongst my wife's people for two years, the finest folks I've ever had the fortune to know, and I couldn't wait to leave when we got orders to Texas.

Same thing with Texas. I wanted to leave there so badly, we got up in the middle of the night and left, instead of waiting until morning.

That was when we moved to the UK, 1992, and moved again, in-country, in 1994, before coming back to the US in 1995.

My point in relating all that...I always left a place, even a place like my birth home or my wife's home in upstate NY, places where I loved and was loved, with a can't-get-me-outta-here-fast-enough attitude. Always going, always looking ahead, and I was always genuinely puzzled when people talked about missing "home" or when I'd come home on leave and my mom would cry every time I left again.

Honestly, I always felt I was visiting a place out of a sense of duty, not because I missed it. I'd come home and Mom would send me on an errand in town, and I'd see a school friend down the grocery store aisle...and I'd avoid them like the plague. Didn't want to look back. I'd get home and she'd say, "I'll bet you had fun driving by the old school, and the movie house, and the reservoir," and I'd confess that I'd done none of those things, nor did I feel the need to. All in the past.

That changed when we got to the UK. Instantly, and I mean from the moment I literally smelled my first English air, on the tarmac at RAF Mildenhall, at about 5AM, on 21 October 1992, I felt...connected in a way I'd never felt before. Ever.

You know how, if you wear glasses things are blurry, then you put them on and it's magically in focus? You can tell what you're looking at, more or less, but you put those specs on, and everything is sharp and clear? That's how it felt. Suddenly, like I'd drunk a magic potion, things in my mind just fell into place.

I was home. Home. Everything made sense. No confusion. Total clarity. That's home.

You can believe, when we had to rotate back to the US, I got to feel for the first time what everyone else felt about their home. I was devastated. I imagine there are still fingernail marks in the jetbridge at Heathrow from where they had to drag me onto the plane. :)

Ever since then, going back, it's always felt like going home, and as soon as I step outside (nowadays, that happens getting on the shuttle to get to Budget to pick up a car, I get that same feeling from 1992. Complete and thorough calm.

That's home. I don't even question anymore. That's home.

@TastyReuben and @epicuric this may or may not resonate with you, but I believe in reincarnation,
I don't, though I have had one experience, a very profound one, in England, of course, that I generally keep to myself, lest someone try and have me committed. :laugh:
 
When I first moved to Kent I loved it instantly but I think the explanation is simple: it the combined climate (not too hot, not too cold), the coast (lots of sand and variety of places to visit) and the seafood.
That's the funny thing - things I absolutely hate here, like being queued up in traffic, or having to wait an hour for a table, don't bother me in the least when I'm in the UK. It's like, "Hey, I could be in <some other country> sitting in front of a delicious steak, already served, or waiting in this long queue because people here take for-<bleeping>-ever to eat...I'll take here, because AT LEAST I'M IN ENGLAND!!!" :laugh:

Seriously, I'm a nervous-wreck-basket-case most days, and I still am over certain things, but my wife will even tell you, I'm the most relaxed and the most at-home in England. Nothing bothers me there, except coming back again. Oh, a dog just shat on my shoe? No worries, I'm in England! Nice doggie! Oh, some criminal just mugged me outside the Tube station? Here, wait, you forgot my other cash in my sock! No, take it, I insist! I'm in England! :laugh:
 
Ever since then, going back, it's always felt like going home, and as soon as I step outside (nowadays, that happens getting on the shuttle to get to Budget to pick up a car, I get that same feeling from 1992. Complete and thorough calm.

That's home. I don't even question anymore. That's home.

Then you must come home somehow. Especially if Mrs Tasty feels the same.
 
Of course Israel has a very different culture to its neighbours, but I've always been attracted to the Middle East. But only recently I started listening to Middle Eastern music, and it moves me in a way western music never moved me, it goes beyond liking or enjoying, once again it's impossible to explain.

Mahmoud Reda was a very famous Egyptian gymnast (he represented Egypt on the Olympic Games in Helsinki), but he was also a dancer, and created the first Egyptian dance troupe. In this video he is doing the traditional tahtib dance, dancing with a stick. When I first saw this video I immediately started crying. I was so emotional I could not understand what was going on the video and right after watching I couldn't remember any of it, and I felt uneasy in myself, not in a bad, just very moved emotional, and I felt like I couldn't sit still, and I couldn't go back to work, I couldn't do anything I just wanted to get out of the house and take a long walk.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf3X4dGSdC4


Now, you may ask what's so special about that performance and that's it, it's that something you can't explain.
 
Then you must come home somehow. Especially if Mrs Tasty feels the same.
She absolutely does. She'll be mad for me telling this, but just this morning, we were watching a little travelogue series on YT, and it's covering the Cotswolds at the moment, and at one point, just exclaimed, "DAMMIT, I WANT TO GO HOME!" and started to cry. :(

It just isn't feasible financially, short of winning the lottery, to live there year-round. We should be able to swing a few months at a time, once we retire, but permanent residency will likely be outside our grasp.

Hmmm...have you ever thought of adoption? I think you need a 54yo son! :wink:
 
I've been all over Europe, especially the UK. I enjoyed just about everywhere I went, but I would not call any of them home.

My ex-wife and I used to vacation on Cape Cod in the summer. I felt very much "at home" there. We stayed at Bed & Breakfasts there, which may have helped. We also both like really fresh seafood. Problem is, I've never been there in the Winter. I've heard it is a LOT different.

Surprisingly, another place I feel right at home when I travel all over for business is NYC, particularly Brooklyn. I don't know why, but I just feel very comfortable -- and it is a great place for people with short attention spans. :laugh:

I don't know that I'd want to live outside the US -- although Canada was looking pretty good over the last four years. :wink:

CD
 
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I imagine there are still fingernail marks in the jetbridge at Heathrow from where they had to drag me onto the plane. :)
Paphos airport has some of mine. Brexit and the effect of the economic downturn on investments have limited available options for emigration. Despite my occasional whingeing, I still love my part of the UK (and others) so staying here could be worse. Perhaps you could send me over those spectacles?
I'd see a school friend down the grocery store aisle...and I'd avoid them like the plague.
I was that person until last year. A thirty year, old boys get together changed that. I had serious misgivings about going, but going was one of the best decisions I have made in a long time. Mostly we hadn't seen each other since leaving school at 18, but we soon found ourselves discussing our personal experiences with an openness that I wouldn't have believed. I can't describe how good it felt - maybe worth a try?
 
^Yep, TR has a sweet OCD regarding the UK. I've never lived abroad so my empirical experience of other countries is limited. I'm a comfort seeker, so I avoid places with poor hygiene, extreme crowds, heat or cold. I've never felt at home anywhere else than in Finland which is my spiritual and physical home.
 
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