DNA Heritage Mapping

While I immerse myself in the DNA genealogy study, serendipity strikes really hard.  I've been delving into heritage percentages and have found surprising results in a few areas, not surprising in others.  Once and only once, for a week, I traveled to Spain.  To this day I haven't left, in my mind and spirit.  That sounds weird, I know.  But, two strange things have happened in my life to scar me and touch my soul deeply.  They came very unexpectedly.

First, was my trip to Spain in 1996, I believe.  Dates, in my own life, sometimes evade me.  Dead people, no problem!  Spain moved me in ways that I still am trying to understand.  It was easy to write the experience off to an American leaving their country for the first time.  That should have explained a lot.  But...it was much deeper I would find.

My time in Spain and Portugal was spent exploring.  I have visited Santiago de Compostela and Fatima, two of the major holy places in the world.  While these holy places were great, my experiences in both Spain and Portugal hold spiritual experiences I'm still trying to understand.
We'll stick to the ones in Spain, for now.

Spain did something to me.  What, I still don't quite understand, but I believe DNA may be a large part of that.  I could not explain why I, who could not speak a word of Spanish, besides perfunctory greetings, could communicate so well non-verbally with Spanish people.  Not just that, but people were drawn to me for some odd reason.  A feeling of these people being my relatives surged through my veins.  It was odd!!  Part of me was very freaked out, the other part was amazingly calm.  If you know me, calm is not a place I visit often, so it's a big deal.

Fast forward to DNA testing.  Once I became a better student of DNA findings I delved deeply into where all of my heritage could be broken down.  Yep....a large swath, from far back, was all over Spain.  All practically equally divided between Cataluna, Castilla y Leon, and Galicia.  Galicia was were I visited and felt like I should have never left.  Weird...huh?

The hard part is finding out who in my tree this comes from, even if that will be possible.  Some surprises, some not.  Here's my surprises:  1. Orkney Islands, off of Northern Scotland
2. Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish

The rest makes sense, I know where my French comes from, my Irish, my west Scottish, my German, Austrian, English, even the Native American.

I would suspect my Spain connection is through my early Virginia Chesapeake tribe that was documented as being different in complexion and culture than other natives encountered in other regions by the English.

The other experience is one I don't share because it's so text book "spiritual sighting", like seeing Jesus in my potato chip.  In Lisbon, Portugal I was fortunate enough to take a monastery bus tour.  This was stunning beyond words to be in cathedrals build in the 13th through 16th centuries, the tombs of Kings and Queens everywhere.

There was one, I believe it was the very famous Jeronimos Monastery and church, in Belem, yet pictures on-line do not reveal my memory.  It could have been the church in the Alcobaca Monastery, I just cannot be sure.  In this cathedral, after viewing famous tombs with the tour guide, I decided to go off on my own.  I approached the area close to the altar and was drawn to my right.  It was a bit dark, but I looked up and there was a huge statue in between others of a woman that must have been Mary.  I looked into her big dark eyes and felt a serge through my body of massive grief like I have never felt before or after.  I saw tears in her eyes and I sensed a deep sorrow for humanity.  Time seemed to stand still and I had to force myself to look away or my heart would explode.  I literally ran to the people on the tour with me and said, "Please, can you come with me and look at something?".  She was a dead statue with different eyes and "nothing" when I returned.  "Do you see anything?" I asked.  "Like what?" is what I heard and they walked away.  I must have lost my mind, I thought.  To this day I look at every picture I can find on-line of that cathedral and find no pictures of this massive statue.  There was also an eye above the altar in the ceiling.  I can't find that either.  Was it Jeronimos or another monastery?

This area of Lisbon dates back to the "Discoveries".  The time was exploratory travels to other worlds.  The picture above is the monument to the discoveries in Lisbon.  I went to the top and looked down on this map, which was quite extraordinary.  Many of the landings in Native "America" are what blended Spanish, Portuguese, and even Dutch into the blood of the Native population all along the sea coast from Canada to the tip of South America and the Islands.  Is this a purely spiritual connection or does this course through my DNA?

All of this, for me, just proves how deep my feelings of emotional connection.  I've not always been comfortable with my extreme sensitivity and have lamented on being somehow cursed.  It's scary and uncomfortable, or at least, was more so in the past.  I'm starting to let it be a part of me and not hide it or be embarrassed by it.  It's not easy!  I like things in a neat, explainable box, but these were not the cards I was dealt.
This journey has been a fascinating roller coaster that I am beginning to love more and more.

How about you?  What fears keep you from sharing your experiences?