Tag: cote d'azur
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Vérités
I am straightening up the kitchen today, when I find this list written on a powder blue post-it note. Water plants Feed animals Paint houses Don’t break your things I’ve noticed this errant piece of paper laying around on the side table for weeks. I’ll move it to my husband’s…
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Je suis toujours ici
Fall is here and I still have much to learn. Too many spaces unexplored, too many lessons left undone to leave now. My contract beckons and I must listen. There is more of the journey ahead as I twist and turn. I hear the call of something more than me, something that hovers just over…
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La Boule Azurée
I will state for the record that I love purple. There was a time in my early teens when I was trying to be grown-up and thought that purple was too childish. In my quest for maturity, I swapped purple for navy blue and burgundy. These seemed more respectable. But as my 10-year-old asked me…
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Le Petit Marin
The little sailor sits on the dock, his bare feet swinging back and forth. Dances of anticipation in the crisp salty breeze. The sun dips lower toward the hills casting an amber glow against his ruddy skin. He extends a plump toe out to rest on the board floating nearby, as it bobs up and…
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La Rentrée
The French have an expression “la rentrée”, which literally means “the return”. When people leave for vacation, people call out to them “À la rentrée!” (Until you return!). When they come back again, there are many well wishes of, “Ah ouais…bonne rentrée”. In France, most of the country goes on summer vacation during August. …
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Abeille ouvrière
The hive out our window doesn’t cease with activity. Morning and night the loyal workers come and go – emerging more slowly in the early hours and picking up pace as the sun climbs the sky. As they approach the nest, they wiggle and swoop wildly. An alien observer, I am mesmerized by the elegance…
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Qui es-tu?
Cool air cuts me deeply as I stand exposed. Dark clouds preview the crack of lightning likely to glisten not far offshore. As I lean forward, whispers float and hover in the silent spaces within the wind. What would you do if I told you that you are not what you thought you were? What…
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Merci monsieur
As he approached the bench where we were sitting, I could tell instantly that there was something wrong. He walked tilted slightly to the left and seemed to drag every other step. His face was serious, stern almost. His eyes glassy and downcast. It took him a minute to recognize us out of context. But…
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Il suffit d’une institutrice incroyable
Today I witnessed such grace that it made me weep. Most days I would pass this moment by – there are errands to do, work to be started. But something caught hold of my soul this morning and won’t seem to let go. So off to pen and paper I go. We have been blessed…
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Je me souviendrai
Will I remember that today I am a few minutes late for pick-up at my son’s school. Will I remember the overfilled parking lot, brimming with poorly parked cars and vans. How it always seems to be fathers who stop right there in the roadway to get their children with no regard to others waiting…
40 Weeks in France 