I'm not a religious person and I wasn't brought up in a religious house. Actually, my mother, little rebel she was, decided not to baptize me and so I was the first in my family to break that chain.

All these years later and I can honestly say I don't think my life would be any different if I had a religious upbringing. If you have a good set of moral values, one that was passed on by your family, why do you need something else?

This does not mean I'm not a spiritual person. If you asked some of my friends what are my beliefs probably you would hear "the universe" a lot. This is because I do believe in an order, in an unseen plan that we can't fully grasp as human beings, but only as souls. This belief comes only from personal experience. From moments when I felt I was more that myself, when I felt the weight of a million lives already lived and the knowledge I've acquired on that journey. Yes, I do believe in reincarnation and I do believe we live countless lives until our souls achieve something and go somewhere... you can't blame for not having all the answers!! and frankly, I don't think I want to know all the answers. I'm so humbled in these moments when I feel my soul, my true soul, speak and think that I don't think I could handle knowing it all...

So I do believe our souls are here, in this particular life as in others, with specific purposes. And those purposes are signaled to us through coincidences, weird feelings and people. For example, people you meet with whom you feel you have this otherworldly connection, because that is true. And you met that person with a purpose. One that you may not know now, or maybe never, but something will be revealed and sooner or later you will at least have a glimpse of the "whys" of your life.

The lack of a religious background may or may not have shaped this vision in my mind. Honestly, I don't think so because, as I've said, this is something I know from within. No one told me, I didn't read it, I just know! And that I cannot explain except to say that I know and I feel it as the truth and so I believe it.

At this day and age I rarely meet people in my circle who are in fact religious. And the ones who were brought up in religious households most of them don't describe themselves as such. But what remains is faith and faith is much more powerful than any church or temple, than any religion, because faith is the reason for these, without it no house of God, no book of religion would survive.

I'm endlessly surprised by the power of faith. In the best ways possible - people giving their life to care for others, save their lives or just make them a little bit better; sick people whose faith literally saves them from a disease medicine couldn't fight... amazing miracles we can't really explain but were definitely brought to life by faith. In the worst - in the most horrendous cases you see faith as the justification for violence, cruelty and murder.

In the end, is this powerful emotion and feeling that continues to shape our world today. Not religion, but faith!