Oh, The Places We Know (Part 1)
Stepping off the airplane in La Paz, my body is met with a soft, warm breeze, bright sunshine, and a sense of ease I have only experienced here. I can't help but to smile gently, as my heart swells with a sweet joy...
Intuitively knowing I have arrived to another one of my soul homes.
When I was 9 years old, I made my first move — leaving the home where I was born to head to a new city, new school, new world... From that point on, I would move every few years or so through college — picking up my life and moving to a new state to start over once again. I learned to make "home" wherever I went. Yet, I have never known that sense of home that one feels with a city and/or house where they grew up and still return to as an adult.
Home as I know it… an old snap from one of my regular hikes in LA.
Even in all my full-time years in Los Angeles, I still moved every few years to different apartments for various reasons, living (and working) in almost every corner of that city. LA became (and still is) the closest thing to what I understand home to be. I feel comfortable there. I lived there more years than anywhere! I know that city and she knows me —probably better than anyone. Never have song lyrics resonated so deeply as these, to accurately describe this relationship.
Through all the healing work, one of the most important gifts I've gained is the deep sense of home I feel in my own body. This grounded, connected feeling within myself has allowed me to take my aforementioned learned skills of making home anywhere, and truly feel at home wherever I am.
Because I feel at home in this physical vessel, I take that feeling with me everywhere I go.
Still, in this human existence, I remember wondering what it would feel like to experience that very real sense of home with a geographical location. Through traveling abroad, and taking big risks listening to Intuition to go explore, I came to learn about what I call "soul homes". These are the places our soul knows.
In my adult life explorations around the world, I am blessed to have experienced this profound, visceral feeling of home 3 times now — always immediately on arrival. The first was when I was 21 before I knew this feeling was even possible, when I landed in Italy. This one was a past life, lineage, deep in my bones and cells kind of feeling. (Still to this day nowhere else has come close to touching this feeling.)
Me, SO happily returning to Rome in 2015 for the first time since the FIRST time in 2004.
The second time happened just a few years ago when I went to Taos for the first time. My whole being knew the land and its medicine, and I knew there was sacred work to be done there. (Actually officially deciding to live there is a story for another time...)
Stepping off the airplane in La Paz, my body is met with this deep knowing and feeling of home once again. Just like the other two, it has its own unique essence and meaning, and just like the other two, my soul immediately understands:
"I am supposed to spend time here."
In the moment, my mind of course has no understanding of why yet, though I am at peace with this unknown. I've learned to fully listen and trust this soul home feeling as Spirit's direct communication with me. And I know that my only job now is to venture forth and explore, so I can discover what I am meant to find, meet who I'm meant to meet, and heal what I'm meant to heal — here.
There is a reason we feel called to the places we do.
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(She/Her)
The gal behind Held In The Heart. The Community Journal is a space for those who feel deeply to express freely. We explore all sorts of things here, from the real & raw healing stories & creative writing, to the funny & fleeting moments of everyday human life. I warmly welcome you and invite you to explore with us!