Where I'm From, and why

Between ul. Karczunkowska and Nawłocka (above) on the last leg of today's walk (6.5 miles/10.5km), I'm again suddenly caught - repeatedly during today's walk - by that familiar feeling of anomalous familiarity. I ponder on this; searching for spirit of place, is Jeziorki merely a substitute for a home from a past life?

While living in London, I'd have the rare anomalous memory (most usually while in 'vacant or in pensive mood', to quote Wordsworth), but never triggered by landscape. Here in Poland, these events occur almost daily. Why is that? Why has moving to another country suddenly caused me to have far more of these flashbacks than before?

It all seems so familiar. This is not from my childhood. Why does landscape have such an impact on me? These flat rural lands around Warsaw have this profound effect on my consciousness, whatever the season. Could it be genetic? After all, my father's family has been rooted in these parts for centuries. But it's a 1950s, not 1920s feel that I'm continually picking up.

I feel that my blogging of Jeziorki is creating a marker, setting down a beacon for the future, that I may in some incarnation to come, return, and by doing so validate the truth about man's eternal soul. Below: As I look at this photo, spirit of place comes vividly to life. This is where I've been, this is where I am.