“Do I detect an accent?” “Where are you from?”

I cannot even tell you how often I have had that question over the many years since I moved away from where I was born and raised. And I am not the only one. The majority of people hear that when they move abroad or while traveling abroad. You would think it is a natural and innocent question or conversation starter when meeting new people, and most don’t really mean anything by it. I usually politely respond because that is what is expected. Still, I am getting tired of the same question and answer. It has become almost robotic, and, to be honest, I am sometimes a bit disappointed in myself for answering as expected. Because more and more, I get annoyed by the question, find it a bit rude even, and what it really means, and I want to answer in a different, intelligent way. So I have made a deal with myself I will do next time. “Why?” I hear you say? Of course the easy way out would be, when I answer with what is expected so the questioner can feel safe and then go about their business again. Or they can relate and say they have been on holiday there or know people from that same country. Yes, and? You have established my accent, bravo. Seriously, I just don’t identify with where I come from. I don’t feel that it says much about me at all. Because I like to think I am not defined by a country or a culture and its people in specific, its beliefs, religion, traditions, or anything else. At one point, perhaps it has shaped me in some way or another, and I am not averse to saying every country has its own energy and resonance, and it rubs off on its native people for sure, and there might even be something like Dutch direct and openness, German practicality, polite Japanese, Greek drama, English (and also French) arrogance, or North American entitlement because of the history of these specific countries or areas and the people who have come to be like that. And I am not talking about nationalism here or traditions, language, or religion, or politics to be clear. I respect each and every ones background and ties with a certain culture and pride as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. I mean, it is still conditioning of course and a whole other subject I could write about: national pride and the rights and wrongs of that.It serves a purpose to be born in a certain country and with a family for our life’s lessons. On some occasions, it could explain why a person behaves in a certain way, especially if they are not fully aware yet. And we know it doesn’t mean all people born in such and such a country or area are like this or that. It is too limiting. WE limit ourselves in thinking like that as we are immediately judging someone and where they are from, and that is what I am averse to: the petty judgment. You don’t know me, so why should I tell you where I am from? Really, I am trying to avoid your judgment. Not out of fear, as I don’t really care what other people think of me, but because it is not the whole truth, and as a Libra, I will always strive for the truth. I personally have come too far on my own journey to have realized I am much more than which country I am from, or which village or town. My personality is no longer this or that because of where I spent my first twenty years or so. So next time, I will answer more truthfully with something like, “I am from the stars, like you, like all of us. I am a spark, a fractal of Source, and have come to Earth to experience this life, this story in this human body as my vessel, and with the parents and country I have chosen to be born in at the time. I am 48, my parents have passed a while ago, I have learned what I needed, and I have long since moved away to follow my personal path and continue to learn and experience in this physical realm.”Not sure what the response will be, but it might trigger an actual conversation, not just a surface-level, shallow one. I do find it hard to make light conversation, and as you might guess, I struggle with small talk. Occasionally, I meet interesting people, especially here on the Greek island I have moved to, where you can meet people who travel and are more open to these things. “We are souls having a human experience,” Edgar Cayce once said. Indeed, the human experience is one of the most interesting but also most difficult of all, especially here on Earth among so many other people with different beliefs, upbringing, race, gender, and species. It is a melting pot where conflict and suffering are very easy to arise because of our differences. And we so easily forget our similarities and common origin.It is, therefore, humbling to remind ourselves that what truly defines us is not where we come from in a materialistic way, of soil and earth, of boundaries, blood, and DNA alone. We are much more than that. Where do our souls originate, our consciousness, and where do we go after this and many other experiences every one should ask? Stop limiting ourselves by placing yourself in a box. Only once stripped of every illusion, condition, dogma, and restriction that each culture and society has placed upon us can we truly find ourselves and be free.We have to start asking different questions when we meet new people. I don’t find it so intrusive if people ask me where I live for example or where my home is as that is perhaps more temporary and less personal for me as it has nothing to do with my roots. Also, don’t always ask what people do, for example. That is another thing that doesn’t necessarily define us. Unfortunately, only a minority really makes a living doing what they love and follow their heart or bliss. I am one of those people who do. This subject actually ties in with the current book I am writing, which is called ‘Cradle of The Stars – Origins.’ It is the prequel to the Comyenti Series. In this case, I do believe that to understand the comyentis fully, one must know where they came from or where they have been. Their planet, what it was like, and how it has shaped them. They are, of course, a different humanoid species than the humans they encounter on Bhan with their super skills and sensitivities, so I explore just how different they are, or were, as they have adapted to Bhan over time as we can read in book 1 and 2. In doing so, I find some similarities too. Therefore, this prequel is stripping them bare and exposing the raw versions of who and what this species is all about. We are, after all, shaped by our past and all our experiences above all, and our consciousness and every decision we make truly creates our reality. But how we respond to situations is ultimately what defines us, or as Finch said in the movie Finch: “Things will happen to you. Things that you cannot control. Raw emotion will find you. When it does, how you deal with it, what you do, will define who you are. It happens to all of us, whether we want it or not.”