We all have places that have become familiar to us during our lifetimes-places that we know very well. Some of them we frequent out of emotional or financial necessity. Maybe it's a yearly trip back home to visit family during the holidays so that we can stay in touch with our loved ones. Or perhaps it's as simple and routine as a daily commute into the city each weekday to go to work. That drive has become all too familiar to you, I'm sure.

On the other hand, there are places we frequent because we just love being there. I have a friend who went on a vacation one year to Jamaica with his wife. They fell in love with the place and return every year for some much needed rest and relaxation. I'm convinced that, when they retire one day, they will be found sitting on a sandy beach in Montego Bay sipping a pina coloda and watching the waves crash on the shore.

There is a place that I know well.....a place that has become all too familiar to me. In fact, I have spent so much time there that I almost feel like an honorary citizen who's been awarded a key to the city. Unfortunately, it is a dark, lonely place. But even though it is dark and lonely, I have met many people who have taken up residence there permanently. They have made themselves a very comfortable and familiar home from which they would never want to move.

I have often marveled at people who live in some of the war torn areas of the Middle East. I just find it hard to comprehend that someone would choose to stay in a place of such unrest where a simple trip to the grocery store could end their life violently. I've often asked myself: 'What is it that allows a human to stay in such wretched conditions and try to make a home in such a volatile area of the world?'

Another wonder to me is the man who packs all of his worldly belongings into his car, drives up to a remote area of Alaska and builds a cabin in the woods far from the comforts and amenities of civilization. All to live a life of toil and struggle. And, again, I find myself asking, 'Why would someone choose to live such a life when a much more comfortable and hospitable existence could be had elsewhere?'

But then I am forced to ask myself why I have spent many years of my life in a dark and lonely place that, at times, made me feel like a dead man walking- a man who was just watching the days pass by, knowing full well that I was just going through the motions- just surviving...just making it through another day...consuming myself with daily doings to avoid thinking about the precious time that was slipping through my fingers. Immobilized by guilt, I stayed in this place long after I knew the dangers to my soul. So, in reality, what separated me from the citizen of Palestine or from the man in the Alaskan frontier?

To be honest, when I first arrived at this place I thought my stay would be short. After all, how many of us have not indulged ourselves in a small pity party.....an afternoon of feeling sorry for ourselves? But as hours turned into days, days into weeks, then weeks into months, it became clear to me that a man could stay here for years wrapped up in a cocoon of self pity and guilt before realizing he had been held prisoner in a place for years-or even decades-that he had the freedom and ability to leave at any time.

Just as the lotus eaters from Greek mythology were unable to muster up either the strength or the desire to leave their island, many people arrive at this place and then, inadvertently, stay for the rest of their lives. It is a place where you can become very comfortable...very much at ease... although, in reality, there is no peace for the soul that remains there. So, it is an enigma, of sorts. However, like quicksand that swallows up it's victim and pulls him down deeper with every struggle to get out, this dark place does not let go of you without a fight.

Where exactly is this place? How did I arrive there? Why was it so easy to stay and lose track of time?

In order to answer these and other questions please allow me to take you on a very personal journey that will take us back in time almost two thousand years ago to a place far, far away...