Where the heart is

Srinagar, India, 2012

The more I travel, the more I see that, even in the most inhospitable and anonymous corners of the world, we are all united not by a belief, culture, language or religion, but by a common desire: the search for love.

A trip to Sarajevo marked a change in me. 

A slight smiling man invites me into his synagogue and tells me that he believes that God had sent me to him so he can deliver a message to me. We talked for hours and what moved me in our discussion was his faith and the joy and love radiating from him. Even in the hardest moments of the war, having to survive in bitter cold temperatures with neither firewood nor food, he never doubted that he was being protected by God.

Fátima, Portugal, 2013

Later, in Fátima, Portugal, a major Catholic pilgrimage site, I had the opportunity to see and feel the most loving faith and humility that I have ever experienced. Women, men, children, came from our over the country filled with promise and moving stories to devote their hopes to the Virgin Mary. The energy and the inner light was immense. And so was its power.

On a trip to India I understood the power of surrendering and that we do not need to be saints, healers or someone special or ‘chosen’ to receive this peace or love. 

The more I traveled, the more I revisited the conversation I had in Sarajevo. There was something sublime to that smiling man: the absence of fear. What is missing in people, in the world, is to trust this love. It has nothing to do with religion, dogma, rules, laws, environment, circumstances or the country in which we find ourselves. That was his message. And now it is mine, too.

Istanbul, Turkey, 2013

What I’ve came to conclude is that what we are cannot be found or defined outside ourselves. Our identity can only be uncovered through the trust and the love that the Universe gives us - either if its God, Buddha, Allah, Hare Krishna, yourself, Jesus, Mother Earth or any other deity that makes sense to us individually.

The truth about who you really are can only come through the heart. The answers are where the heart is. That's where true love and our true identity are experienced, deeply. To achieve this experience, we need to learn to listen. We need to learn to trust. Although painful and difficult, is only through the heart that we can find the courage and strength to be proud, to be happy, about who we really are.

Freedom begins here.