Market Day

Every Sunday in Malakoff, France the circus comes to town.  Actually, it is the weekly market, but it has the feel of a circus.  Inside a large building individual vendors bring their produce, seafood and other delectable foods and treats. People walk to the market from all over town pulling their personal grocery bag on wheels behind them in anticipation of filling it with delicious foods for the days to come.  The locals know just which vendor they want to buy particular items from and head straight to their usual spots.  We wandered through the whole place first to get our bearings and decide what we wanted to pick up for lunch.

When we stopped at the stand selling olives, different Greek spreads, and hummus, the vendor was being harassed by a jolly woman with decades of experience dealing with guys like him.  She was talking him out of sample after sample of his goods.  He had just loaded up a hunk of croissant with feta cheese and sun-dried tomato when we walked  up.  She made a crack, and he shifted his aim handing the sample to my daughter instead.  The woman threw back her head and chortled, her mouth wide open.

That salesman may have been more savvy than she gave him credit for.  Not only did she end up buying a container of the feta spread, we did too.  In addition to the feta, we bought a ball of chèvre rolled in golden raisins, some fruit, a baguette, and some marinated olives.  I don’t know how much the experience added to the flavor of the foods, but we had one of the best lunches I have had in a long time and a little dinner theater thrown into the bargain.

Celebrate Someone Else’s Beauty

It takes a mature heart to truly celebrate someone else’s beauty.  For some reason we fear that there is only so much good- be it love, admiration or joy- to go around.  If we give too much away, there may not be enough left for us.

Paradoxically, the more good we give, the more we receive.  When our heart is open enough to celebrate the beauty in another, it is better able to take in more goodness for itself.

To celebrate another’s beauty, we have to take the focus off ourself and place it on another.  We have to honestly care about someone other than ourselves. We expend energy in celebration of their good fortune.  When that celebration is genuine, we lose awareness of our own petty desires.  Ironically, in that moment we have never been more beautiful.

All Saints Day

These are some shots from a walk through Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, resting place of several famous people, including Gertrude Stein and the composer, Frederic Chopin. 

The oldest people buried here are a husband and wife, Abelard (1079-1142) and Heloise (1101-1164).  Many graves have been added since that time.  The most recent I saw was in 2011, but most are very old.  Many are moss covered or strewn with cobwebs; some have sunken over time.

Lots of the family plots are marked by crypts where the bereaved can come to pray.  The smell of incense and flickering of candles can be found at several graves.  As sunlight shines through the stained glass that appears in the back and sides of many of the crypts, color can be seen through designs cut into the doors in their fronts.

After all these years, I still felt as though I was witnessing the grief of the bereaved looking at these graves.  Seeing how they attempted to preserve the likeness of a loved one, or tell something about their lifestyle in the memorial they chose, I understood the desire to make sure the one they lost was not forgotten having experienced that same feeling.

Grief is such a painful process; it overwhelms us leaving both body and soul spent.  Once you have lost someone, I don’t believe you ever really stop grieving.  I think the best you can hope for is to find peace.

Peace to all who are mourning.

https://www.mamakatslosinit.com

Never have I seen a ghost; but if I did, I am pretty sure it would be here.

Parisian Cobblestones

Cobblestones cover the ground in Paris everywhere you look- streets, sidewalks, courtyards outside residences and public buildings.  It seems as though they’ve been there forever; though they are worn, they never wear out.  Curving, swirling or straight as a pin,  one stone after another leads the way through this beautiful city.

I Miss Paris

A place I love to visit.

It has been drizzly and icy all week long.  The gray skies and lack of color have me dreaming of a stroll in Paris where even the most everyday things are beautiful.

sidewalk cafe

fluted stone column detail

pixar-style chess board park table

a monument cast from the cannons of a warring nation

lady lamps for sale in the gift shop of the Opera House

 

a butcher shop

Filling an Empty Nest

Thinking of Shakespeare and Company, I decided to share this piece from 2015 once more.  

Prompt: If you could have given yourself a snapshot five years ago of what your life is like now, what would the picture be of and how do you think you would have felt about it?

 Five years ago, I had adjusted well to my oldest child being a college student three states away.  My other two kids were in high school though the end was in sight.  I so enjoy having the three of them around that I was not looking forward to the emptying of my nest.

My wise friend June was in the same stage of life.  She told me that we had to figure out what made us personally happy and pursue it.  What she understood was that our nests wouldn’t feel so empty if they were filled with what we loved other than our children. 

And so I rekindled love:  the love and friendship that my husband and I shared as newlyweds;  my love of creating art or something like it;  and my love of reading.  While all my rekindled loves bring me joy, it is my reading that has surprised me with its voraciousness.  Each night as I lay in bed it is not the stillness that has replaced footfalls on the stairs that I hear, but the adventures re-experienced with characters I’ve known forever or new escapades with those I have just discovered.  I feel no loneliness in the wee hours as my husband sleeps peacefully by my side because I am kept company by historical figures and fictional friends page after page.

The greatest accomplishment of my life is motherhood.  The times that my children are nestled under my roof are still my favorite times of all.  But the other times–the quiet times of solitude and contented partnership have a magic of their own.  Like all great stories, as life unfolds I am surprised and entranced by the plot twists, especially those which I could have not predicted such as an empty nest where a sense of emptiness is completely foreign to me.

Snapshots taken at an English bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, in Paris, France.

Posted 

TToT: Shakespeare and Company

It is not my usual habit to include material items in my count of things I feel thankful for, but the parcel that arrived via Deutsche Post today represents much more than the material.

In November I saw an Instagram post from Shakespeare and Company, an English bookstore in Paris.  The post explained The Year of Reading program offered by the bookstore.  Shakespeare & Co employees would package their recommended reads for the lucky participant to discover in their mailbox throughout 2018.  Immediately I sent the post on to my daughters who received it politely, but with far less enthusiasm than I would have anticipated.  So, I thought maybe it was just me who found the concept intriguing.  I mulled it over for days finally deciding that I was not comfortable spending the amount being charged on a gift for myself.

What I didn't realize until Christmas was that one daughter had seen the same post minutes before I did.  She had already shared it with her sister, and they were discussing what a perfect gift it would make for me as they received my forwarded post. They were getting in touch with their brother and father and didn't need me complicating their plans.  

The first of three installments arrived today.  It did not disappoint.  The attention to detail in the packaging made my heart race just opening the box.  Literary quotes cover the wrappings.

The bags are sealed with the company logo, and it is also stamped inside each book.  Each of the books is wrapped with a note from the staff person who chose it explaining why they picked this particular book for the package.

Tucked inside each book is a bookmark featuring a different photographic image from the bookstore.  On a sheet of stationery a poem has been typed on an old typewriter in the store.  A poem is tucked into each book.  One of the books is even signed by the author.

Everything about this package was meant to make a literary nerd's heart swoon...and it succeeded.  

Which brings me to my list of Ten Things of Thankful this week:

For books and for words that have the power to move me.
For talented writers.

For Paris and memories of browsing at Shakespeare and Company.  For grown children who are intrepid world travelers and have encouraged me to be as well.

For the four incredible and generous people I am lucky enough to claim as my family.  They are the very best gifts of all. 

                                                                            TToT

I am cheating a bit. The Last Nice Thing Someone Did for You was one of the prompts for the Writer's Workshop this week.  I saw the prompts right after posting this piece, and knew it works for that prompt as well.