A Look Back on an International Life…

(Photo - November, 2024, in front of the Bhagavan Nityananda Samadhi Shrine, Ganeshpuri, India)

A Look Back on an International Life…

I am very grateful to the international life I’ve been given in this lifetime. I describe it all as by dint of destiny…

My beginnings happened in Tokyo, Japan decades ago (1955). And this far flung location (from the US) one could say foretold a life of travel and various global residences.

Part of my childhood took place in Latin America (Brazil, El Salvador and Panama) which was followed by university that was not outside the US but bicoastal…University of Maryland followed by University of California, Berkeley-each two years.

Graduate school (John’s Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies) did take me abroad. I opted to for a year in Italy; which included time in then Yugoslavia and a month in Poland, along with travel into France, Spain and Ibiza (Quite the happening place!😄)

Graduate school, during that first year, also afforded me a couple of weeks in Cuba. This was back around 1980 when such a thing was very rare. (My graduate program included an exchange program with University of Havana.). This was a fascinating visit, indeed, adding to a deepening understanding of how differing governmental structures have such a profound effect on their populace!..

To backtrack a bit, the year between university and graduate school took me to New York City and then a month in Paris. I was working as a model with the Ford Agency which was based in New York. This month in Paris did foretell a destiny I have had with France which appeared later in life…

After graduate school it was really an open road. None of the possible career choices held appeal…So I started to meditate. I felt drawn to this practice as it might provide a sense of what felt missing in my life. A friend of mine suggested I meditate on the 23rd Psalm. Ok. It is long but I took his advice. On about the third day of this attempt to meditate, I could hear from another part of the house where I lived, which was occupied by other students, mumbled conversation on the radio. And, amidst the mumble, the word “meditation” jumped out! That was apparently the topic of the conversation!

Of course, I took advantage of this divine synchronicity and turned on the radio. I lit up with a recognition upon hearing of a certain spiritual path (and the mantra) in the course of this radio discussion. And, with this singular, life-changing moment, my life embarked upon a beautiful and powerful path that would include over a decade in an ashram in both the US, largely, and also India.

The time ahead, some years later, included marriage to a French man (Who grew up in Morocco. The French there are known as “Pied Noir…”) and two beautiful sons.

We did travel to Morocco early in the marriage to visit his parents. What a gorgeous country…The souk…The medina…The Sahara Desert…

After the birth of our first son, we departed the ashram and moved to Guadeloupe, the French West Indies. We lived there for around three years. A marvelous adventure it was, offering the opportunity to learn French; to add to the Spanish and Portuguese I had learned earlier in life. (The Portuguese has faded because we left Brazil when I was around age eight. I’m sure it would come readily if I spent time in a Portuguese-speaking country again.)

And, most importantly, this beautiful Caribbean Island was the site of the birth of our second son!

(And, the French medical system was great by the way. We all received wonderful care under its auspices.)

And every few years there were these lovely family visits to France to visit his parents, who had by then moved to the south of France. Such memorable times…

Further along, my older son spent a few years in Europe, in Prague, after completing university. So, of course, I embarked on travel there twice, the second time with my younger son.

Prague is a marvelous travel destination!

And these days, since, 2023, I have been spending much time in India, a return to this beloved subcontinent. It started in early 2023 with a six-week visit followed by a five month stay later in the year. This several months stay was repeated the following year. And, I hope and plan on continuing in this manner.

This time in my life affords me this opportunity. India’s primordial spirituality has called me back.

Of course, not every destination in the US and otherwise, has been mentioned here…Briefer visits have taken place to other places…Guatemala, Nicaragua, Columbia, Mexico, Austria, Canada to name a few.

And, what to say about this more global destiny? As I look back on it (And, it continues!), I am very grateful for what it has endowed me. Exposure to other cultures and people can only broaden the mind and open the heart, for one can see the face of humanity in all reaches of the globe. We are so much more alike than different. Kindness is appreciated everywhere. A smile is an international signal…

As I approach my seventieth birthday this August, I recognize the gift of this exposure to so many people and places across our marvelous world. Again, I feel it was by dint of destiny. It really wasn’t travel for travel’s sake as is often the case for some. It just naturally, organically occurred.

It is not necessary to travel the world to plummet the depths of life, of our being. Some never stray beyond their place of birth. And this, too, is wonderful. We each have our particular path and rhythm in this life.

For some reason, mine took me well beyond my home country. And what to say about this global destiny?

I am grateful. It has, and continues to, afford me a breadth and depth of experience. It has increased my sense of a common humanity, that people everywhere, for the most part, are essentially good. It has increased my trust in the “other” where this otherness has been given a chance to dissolve…And, the beauty and profound cultures that exist amongst the various and variegated countries that have welcomed me!…Oh, my…That could fill volumes…

But, finally, coming home to oneself is, indeed, the ultimate destination. That is the journey of lifetimes. And that can only be found in the present moment, right here, right now. So, as you read this, feel your native at-home-ness that doesn’t depend on any travel. Feel that pure, primordial awareness that looks through your eyes; that is that feeling of you throughout all space and time, and beyond.

By dint of destiny I have been granted an international life.

And by dint of destiny, I am on a journey home to myself.

Embrace this ultimate journey wherein the destination is available here and now.

Blessings and bon voyage!

Annie Kiyonaga

July 13, 2025