A turning point in my life

I grew up without any kind structured religion. I was interested in all kinds of religious practices and very interested in a sort of New Age spirituality, which is what best describes my mother's inclinations. I went to a church a few times, growing up as I did for the large part in Spain, and in England did my A-Levels at a Quaker school, but nothing really touched my soul as such.
When I left school I moved to Spain permanently. I saw my father, step-mother and brothers in Madrid for the last time in about ten years and the first time in almost as long. I was eighteen and they were living in Madrid at the time. When my paternal grandfather died in 1994 I got an obituary notice from my aunt on which it stated that the Spiero family was living in Tel Aviv. During the years we had no contact I started working for a cosmetics company as their Export Manager and the circumstances came about that I was sent to Israel by the company. I thought it would be interesting, more than anything because my family lived there, but I thought everybody's comments of "going back to my roots" were rather amusing. On the flight over I sat next to an Israeli who really helped to change my life forever. I told him that I was Jewish but that I knew nothing about Judaism. And although I cannot remember a single thing of what he said, I know that our conversation had a very powerful effect on me and by the time we landed at Ben-Gurion airport I was much more interested in visiting my homeland.
And now came the moment I will never forget as long as I live. The plane's doors opened and the caress of the Israeli air touched my face. I descended as if in a daze and the moment my foot stepped on Israeli ground
I started crying and shaking uncontrollably, completely overwhelmed. The people around me didn't act surprised and some came up to me and put their arm around me (including my travelling companion) and told me that they had seen my same reaction many times. I have a clear memory of the particular smell in the air: a warm, Mediterranean caress which cradled my senses. I was totally overwhelmed by emotions as I walked the streets of Jerusalem and the beaches of Tel Aviv and the culmination came when I looked in the phone book, found my father’s number and called him up. I was very happy that he was as excited as I was with my presence in Ha’aretz.