Home is where the heart is
Since Sunday I am back in Belgium. It is in the meanwhile already the third time that I leave Armenia without Kristine. As the proces of Visa is a long bureaucratic proces that is taking months and months. I hope that this was the last time I had to travel to Belgium alone …
On the other hand I feel gratitude that I could create space to be a lot in Armenia with my beloved Kristine, in the land which is deeply in my soul also … I deeply hope that in the future borders will slowly vanish and that we will move to a world of oneness. As sometimes it is really challenging to live in a world with so many outside limitations. In my relation with my beloved I don’t feel this borders but as our earthly vessels were born in a different country we are deeply confronted with the limitations outside ourselves.
For me personally home is not a country nor a fysical place. If I learned something from the nomadic life from the last years then it is in the first place that I am home wherever my heart is. In the meeting with Kristine I also deeply feel that home is also in our relation. That my house is not a physical place but in the first place my earthly vessel and the vessel of Kristine as I deeply feel we are one soul in 2 vessels.
If I now look back on my life in a bigger context then I see that my whole life was a preparation for the meeting with my beloved. After we met there was no other choice then to fully choose for commitment and a sacred union with my beloved. All previous experiences I had in life where a preparation for that moment.
Now that I am back in Belgium alone all is strange in some way. Nothing seems the same even that nothing changed. In the end it is just me that changed. It is even strange to speak Dutch again as in the meanwhile I am speaking mostly English and that I also slowly start to speak Armenian. The reason that I am back is also because I will cofacilitate a grouptravel to Glastonbury with friends in March. So during the spring equinox I will be again in Glastonbury. One year after I was standing on the Tor looking towards the East with a deep feeling I was going home I will go back to this magical place. I could never foresee rationally at that time which miracles would happen …
Now back in Belgium I feel again how much I love this land and especially Bruges the city where I was born will always have a special place in my heart. But my love is not limited to the borders of this country. My love is connected with the energy of this places. As borders are relative and change during time. Which also brings limitations sometimes … In some kind of way it makes me sad that I cannot be here now together with my beloved … As i would love to freely be here with my beloved also …
There were other times when Armenians were freely welcome in Bruges … Years ago I followed a course for guide in Bruges and I also studied a lot about the history of Bruges in general. So I know there was a time that Armenian merchants and of course a lot of other merchants from all over the world w
ere residents in Bruges during the middle ages. It is interesting to know about the Armenian presence in the town of my heart. Armenian merchants in the middle ages were bringing merchandise from the East to the West and they were especially active in carpet industry in Bruges. They were very welcome and loved in the region … In a time there were no visas. But times change and so do borders …
I deeply hope from the bottom of my heart that soon I will be free to walk in the streets of my beloved Bruges together with my wife … Just like I am free to walk in the streets of Yerevan and the Armenian fields … I hope that we will soon be free to travel together in the region my earthly vessel was born … Just like I am free to travel in the country her earthly vessel was born … It would be nice to travel free on all levels …
The interesting thing is that today when writing this message the mother of Kristine called me to say that the prime minister of Armenia is also in Belgium in this moment … It is already the second time that exactly the same time that i came back he is here on a business meeting to speak about future cooperations …
And even more interesting is that just now I receive call from Kristine that just now in this moment there is a live conversation on Armenian television between the Armenian prime minister and Juncker, the president of the European Commission and that Juncker is speaking about the fact that they want to arrange visa free for Armenian people …
All is coming together and i am longing for the day we will be free to travel together … for us and for all Armenians and for people from everywhere …
As in the end home is not a country or about borders but about the place where the heart is wherever we are …
Hug
Jan
pic from “De Burg” in Bruges by 17th Century painter Jan Baptist Van Mennixhove