When we arrive, the trains are still on strike. France is infamous for striking transportation workers. I believe every time we've been in France, one important service is striking, whether it's garbage services or train workers--please never let it be the bakers. Our three hour train ride, where we would have napped after a transatlantic flight and a nine hour time change, becomes a car rental, four-plus hour drive under gloomy skies.
~~Tis a strange thing to leave the land and life we love and venture out in hopes of finding not the same, but difference; a difference we may come to love as much.~~
We have found different, but it's difficult to imagine love when we arrive in the dark having skipped a night of sleep.
"Seulment Francaise," I insist on the first night out with Tony and our new French colleagues. I will improve my French at all costs and French only is the best way to learn. Or it may be, as I joked with a friend, death by French.
Niort appears to be a quirky little place in the world. Tiny roads, streets, cafes, but big hearts. Mari has found our apartment and furnished it with soap, towels, fresh tulips on the table. When we open the fridge we are greeted with a whack of smelly French cheese.
The closets are big, the beds are small.
~~We leave that we may widen experience. Leaving is a chance to fill in the cheeks and calk the cracks. To expand life. Give it depth and breath. Love isn't limited. The capacity to love is exponential.~~
Now, I must find my own experience in France.
When Tony first proposed his sabbatical to the company, I insisted my need to teach. When he told his colleague, the colleague responded, "My children's school needs an English teacher!" They even needed a History teacher! I updated my CV and it was passed on to Madame Darbenger. I was ecstatic. I confidently let my school know I would be teaching in France. This will be a great opportunity they agreed. As I waited for France to accept my love and devotion, they decided I could only teach if I did so for the entire year. Hence, I wouldn't be teaching in France at all.
The now empty vacuum of my time was quickly filled. On the day of our departure three of our four children bought tickets to France. We would now have company for weeks at a time. How could this have happened if I had been obligated to teach?
And then, our daughter's marriage started to unravel. Come to France! It was the new cure all. Somehow we will get her here with her little empire of children.
~~If we're not willing to step out and beyond, then how will we ever know the company of angels?
~~Tis a strange thing to leave the land and life we love and venture out in hopes of finding not the same, but difference; a difference we may come to love as much.~~
We have found different, but it's difficult to imagine love when we arrive in the dark having skipped a night of sleep.
"Seulment Francaise," I insist on the first night out with Tony and our new French colleagues. I will improve my French at all costs and French only is the best way to learn. Or it may be, as I joked with a friend, death by French.
Niort appears to be a quirky little place in the world. Tiny roads, streets, cafes, but big hearts. Mari has found our apartment and furnished it with soap, towels, fresh tulips on the table. When we open the fridge we are greeted with a whack of smelly French cheese.
The closets are big, the beds are small.
~~We leave that we may widen experience. Leaving is a chance to fill in the cheeks and calk the cracks. To expand life. Give it depth and breath. Love isn't limited. The capacity to love is exponential.~~
Now, I must find my own experience in France.
When Tony first proposed his sabbatical to the company, I insisted my need to teach. When he told his colleague, the colleague responded, "My children's school needs an English teacher!" They even needed a History teacher! I updated my CV and it was passed on to Madame Darbenger. I was ecstatic. I confidently let my school know I would be teaching in France. This will be a great opportunity they agreed. As I waited for France to accept my love and devotion, they decided I could only teach if I did so for the entire year. Hence, I wouldn't be teaching in France at all.
The now empty vacuum of my time was quickly filled. On the day of our departure three of our four children bought tickets to France. We would now have company for weeks at a time. How could this have happened if I had been obligated to teach?
And then, our daughter's marriage started to unravel. Come to France! It was the new cure all. Somehow we will get her here with her little empire of children.
~~If we're not willing to step out and beyond, then how will we ever know the company of angels?
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