Paris

hello friend

it’s me here
a kinder, gentler me after spending a month in Paris 🙂

feeling renewed from things and circumstances that I didn’t anticipate

it rained a lot
I needed that

I haunted Shakespeare and Co bookshop a few times and began reading A Moveable Feast by Hemingway (it’s about his early days in Paris)

I drank wine and had a jambone and played in the paints while sitting on a piece of Paris earth, the same little island in the Seine that Notre Dame sits on

I Ubered
a lot
I walked and walked

I averaged 3 cappuccinos every day
and at least one croissant
and a partial baguette 

I frequented the flower shops, both staring in windows when closed and buying peonies and roses when they were open
I smiled a lot during the flower purchasing exchanges since I don’t speak a lick of French
the smiles were easy and equally rewarded

I visited the waterlilies at the Musee l’Orangerie and saw them with new eyes
I visited my impressionist friends’ work at Musee d’Orsay and realized we both had aged
they seemed different to me this time and I realized it was because I was different

I made a wonderful new friend, an American guy married to a Paris gal

I slept under skylights that allowed me to see the Paris skies from the time my eyes popped open in the morning til they rested themselves at night

I had a lot of wine and Spritzes
and pastries
and candies from shops in business for a mere 300 years

I sat on the earth in Monet’s place and saw a rainbow on his pond
I felt a tremendous amount of gratitude

I met Anna who’s a whopping 4 months old
I rode carousels
(that’s plural as in more than one 😉

I painted in Renoir’s garden and found myself able to be present—miracle of miracles

I sat on our rooftop deck, early and late
to write, to listen

I had good, deep conversation there too
I laughed
a lot

I picked up new paint colors
a box of blue, 9 tubes
then a box of reds,  9 tubes
then a box of pinks and greens, 9 tubes each
and then I felt the hunger pangs settle down

I found new pencils rolled in a bright yellow jacket and watercolors that have been made the same way forever
a handmade paper journal that was a bit worn and the only one left in a very old art store came back with me

angel
statues
everywhere
they are waiting on my pen, this I know

curly hair that grew out on the trip and became more unmanageable and more me in the process (am I unmanageable?)

glimpses of magnificence
everywhere
big, small, nothing left out

ghosts of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Monet, Manet, Vincent and Renoir fill up the city

dear friend it is a city, a place, that takes the breath
away

whatever comes of this will be rich and deep

it is something wanting to be realized
I am willing to be the vehicle for that
the trick is letting this be what it wants to be

which is also the joy part of things

I was moved by Paris
it is still unfolding

Postcards from Paris, The Experience
Coming Jan/2019

P.S.  Interest list for Postcards from Paris is here if you’d like to be part of it>> Click Here

I should add a note that all of the new art items shown here are simply for the pleasure of trying new things
no claims, no expectations
they are with me simply for the joy
the way creativity plays
full out
just for joy

that IS the point 😉