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God said to Abraham, "Leave your country, your family, your father's house, and walk inward to the land I will show you." This is what true spirituality demands: to leave everything we know; to relinquish everything we are...simply trusting that when we get "there..." we will know. Buddha did that. So did Lao Tzu, Jesus, and Mohammed. They all left home.
But we do just the opposite. Worse! We take refuge in those who taught No Refuge. We imitate those who demanded No Imitation. We study each other's floor plans, and borrow each other's furniture, when what we really need is to leave home."
-Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro

Exiles pretend to be thick-skinned, but there is one thing that makes us feel homesick and existential. The death of our parents who live in our old home country. My father passed away on 29 April 1992, two weeks before Gabriella was born. My mum past away this weekend and I know how it feels to think of yourself as being parentless and home-less. She will be buried on 14 February, the date of my dad's birthday ... I feel the loss. Somehow pain is deeper than all thought!

Happy people have no history.
-Leo Tolstoy