This is what my life looks like right now:
I am surrounded by people I just met, and I feel completely at ease.
Live sitar and guitar music permeate the ornate living space. My red wine matches the oriental carpet and beaded doorways. There are instruments everywhere. And a very tactile cat.
Adults are cooking. Young people are chatting quietly. A couple boys are giggling at the mishaps of various comical pets on a muted flat-screen TV. A big French guy is barbecuing. “Medium rare,” I say. He calls me “darling.” I guess he just calls people that.
I’m in small-town Quebec. People really do speak French here. Like, real French. You say “bonjour” to someone at the used book store, and they start chattering away as if you’re capable of actual conversation. Even if you don’t say “bonjour,” they assume you’re capable of actual conversation. Like, they really do speak real French, by default.
The books are in French – even the “teach yourself French” books. The signs are in French. You have to turn the products over on the shelf to find out what the heck they are. You’d think you were travelling or something.
And yet, happily, if you stare at someone stupidly enough, they deduce that you require English, and feel a little sorry for you. You can say “bonjour” and then flip over into your own language more or less seamlessly. It’s like fake travelling.
Soon I will do real travelling. Things really will be in French, and if not French, then Arabic. I’ll have to actually say “bonjour,” or maybe “salaam,” and who knows where that will lead?
Who knows, indeed.
All I know is that I love this feeling of being in a new place, with new people, yet feeling perfectly at home. Even five hours from Peterborough, there are places where the world looks different than it’s ever looked before to me. Can you imagine what moving to a new continent will do to me?
It will rock my little Anglo world. And I can’t wait.
Woohoo! You go, Girl! I am proud of you!
A king received two rare and exotic birds for his garden. They were placed on a branch in one of his trees. The one bird took to flight and could be seen flying about, with its beautiful plumage that delighted many. The other bird just sat there.
The king asked that wise men from far and wide come and see why the other bird would not fly. No one could deduce anything.
The simple gardener however was able to make him fly.
They king summoned him and asked, “Where so many wise men failed, how did you make this bird fly?”
The gardener answered, “Oh, it wasn’t hard. i just took the branch it was sitting on and sawed it off.
Many of us live too comfortable lives and don’t ever need to get off our branch. But once we move in faith to our inner stirrings, the most thrilling life enfolds.
Continue to find what’s glorious in what’s new and live it… and then blog about it… you help us to experience it along with you… Peace!