Rodin inspiration…

I too am a thinker.

 While in Paris we went for a walk and found the Rodin Museum.

I can only liken my visit to going to church.

Now i am not being disrespectful of church or religion.

I believe that spirit can be moved in amazing places. 

I was deeply affected here.

Maybe it was the serenity mixed with art and history.

Or the spirit in the garden and the majesty in the sculptures.

 Strolling through the gardens was like stepping back in time. 

Even though the gardens were not manicured and neat in Mr R's day.

The place was just as gorgeous but in a magical, adventurous spirit kind of way. 

Clearly tending  garden was not his thing. Apparently he loved it but it was overgrown.

I imagine like the closed garden in the story "Secret Garden".

 He was an artist. He worked. A lot.

 The house is the museum.

The gardens with large brass replicas scattered about.

 Posed, frozen in time and position.

Having seen children's movies, where the statues come alive after the park closes, many of these would have cricks in their necks and need a stretch.

 These lovely lounge chairs would be a great place to relax on.

This brings me to the point of this post.

During 2012 and our family adventure in France i relaxed, became more of myself, more or the time. 

I was on holidays, no serious schedules, no commitments, no old patterns and every opportunity to take risks and challenge myself.

Coming home is always wonderful. Yet the home i feel in myself is harder to sustain. I am pulled in many directions. I fall into familiar old patterns, take things, people for granted and forget about the relaxedness of just being. 

Instead of focusing on the obvious how does one remain attentive to the big picture?

I love this cheap shot. Thats my kind of quirky humour. Sorry…. 

 I over think, over feel and can be sponge for the energies around me.

I end up being like this sculpture.

Enough.

2013 is to rejoice.

Yay that i am thoughtful & empathic, sensitive and considerate.

Clear boundaries can make the dilemmas more manageable.

 To simplify, and this picture of my little girl helps.

Simplicity= a girl and a juicy fruit.

Thats all there is.

Moment to moment.

 Some how i think Rodins day was simpler.

But probably not.

I would like to be like this lady, serene and meditative.

I would like to have lots of these moments with my beloved.

This is me rejoicing all year long, as i get a handle on the list of changes and new beginnings coming our way in 2013.

 I feel more contorted like this lady (left) presently...

1. get a new job

2. finish training course

3. settle kids in new school

4. buy new (2nd hand?) car

5. renovate kitchen

6. remodel family rooms

7. paint, create and rejoice

8. find a writing group

9. develop art class & find place to teach it

10. support and be attentive to the hearts and needs of my family

11. plan and create more adventures for us to go on

12. do physical activity ie yoga, tai chi, pilates, gym…

13. document my ordinary and amazing trip around the world this year in words and pictures

No wonder my husband looks more like the man in the photo above.

 I want to go back to the feeling in this place.

Complete.

Magical & mystical.

 Awe inspiring.

Detailed. 

Reflective. 

 All embracing. Vulnerable, yet brave.

Old yet creative. 

 In the presence of masters.

Open with the ability to be guided.

As we left i felt i knew this place.

I carry it with me now.

I can create this feeling in my home.

I can remember, just by looking at the  photos.

This is why this is like church to me.

Thought provoking and inspired.

Do you have a place that does that for you?

 Looking back one more time, the detail captures my imagination.

Mrs R opened this window. Called her husband to come in from the cold.

He looks up at her smiles, slowly moves from the roses and enters the house and sits near the open fire.

….maybe….

I love this sculpture with out head, feet or hands. 

Perhaps this is the reminder i need.

There is no need to run anywhere,

there is no need to do many things at once, 

or to over think everything.

If it is possible i too can relax into my life, like in her pose, and rejoice in my clarity and commitment to me and my life for 2013.

sparkle & twirl

*

Paris....

Time to say goodbye to Paris & France.

We are on our way back home.

Know that there will be a lot more here about France and our adventures.

Thanks for your interest and comments.

*sparkle & twirl

around the world

The good bread....

 What does one say when they are leaving a little bit of their hearts behind?

We are on our way home. This time next week we will in our own home. Surrounded by our own people. We will be us but with such an amazing suitcase of memories & experiences.

This place will be on thing we will miss.

 The crispy, buttery goodness.

The fork-tongued bread which invites you to break off a little endy for the walk home. 

 The variety. Each with its own flavour, texture and crunch.

We are bread snobs now, for sure.

 Gifting this food was always a delight.

Even the time we were invited to lunch on a Sunday, so we bought the chocolate mousse cake (for 8-10) Saturday. Only to receive the call late that night as their child was very sick in hospital.

Sadly we ate chocolate cake for 3days. 

Kids loved it when i said, 

"Sure you can eat it for breakfast."

Only in France.

Ahhhh.........Mmmmmmm.... 

 I loved the Millefeuille.

The 1000 crispy layers of pastry separating the creamy custard.

 Divine raspberry creme macarons.

 Tarte au Pomme.

Aurevoir, Madame Serres. 

Your kindness and generosity made this little family feel well nourished in so many ways by you & your girls, daily.

They helped me with my pronunciation of the pastries and always wished me a bon journe. 

sparkle & twirl, but not while eating french bread.

then only sparkle.

twirl later.

*

Knock, knock.....

Whose there?

Love these door knockers.

Does your door have one of these?

This one is well used as the forefinger is shiny & silver from wear.
These are thought to keep "evil" away.
In the big apartments i think they are just to alert someone in the building that someone is there.
Modern times have replace their function with buzzer buttons and pin codes.
The door knockers remain. Sigh....
Participating in An Accidental Blog - Dreaming of FranceMonday Meme.

sparkle & twirl*

And then there is Sunday....

We saw our lovely friends for lunch today.

We ended up at the playground opposite a church i have walked by many times (Eglise De La Duarade), but never gone in. I think because it was meant to be today. With my newest friend. The blahs of yesterday gone and forgotten. The husbands getting on well. The children spinning, climbing and generally torturing each other on the playground equipment.

 After our trip to Rocamadour to the "Madonna Noire" i googled black Madonnas and discovered there is one here in Toulouse. With our Polish friends we had a discussion, me telling them about my story (you can read the other post here) and they told us their story of the famous black Madonna in their church in Poland. (see here)

I told you "kindred".

 We girls excused ourselves, "said we would be back in 10minutes" and went to see her. WOW ! 

She was beautiful.

My friend told me about the regal dress she wears and that it is changed at certain times. In the Polish church once a year.

The altar, painting and design are inherently feminine.

The pinks and blues soft and kind.

God & the angels looking over La Madonna serene.

This church is not popular. It is bit hard to find the entrance, dark inside and not lovingly restored like other churches i have been to in the last few months.

 Yet i love that about it.

It must be how art restorers and archaeologist must feel when they know they have found something amazing.

One day it may become popular again and be cleaned, untarnished and mended.

Until then i will take her as she is; well worn, ageing and with a deeply lived facade.

 The windows are broken and gloomy daylight the only illumination.

 The stars still shine here, even in the day.

 You know this tiny photo hardly does justice to the magnificence and vast grandness of this ceiling.

 This looks like a carving but it is painted. Chipped and graffitied.

 A painting to celebrate the arrival or "Virgin Noire".

 “Every archetype has its seasons. They come and go according to the deepest, often unconscious, needs of the psyche both personal and collective. Today the Black Madonna is returning.”

Matthew Fox, Return of the Black Madonna, ©2006

 I seek light. I am a "light hunter".

Light also has shadow and embracing the darkness helps.

To hold both in your hands and your heart is what makes us whole.

 Amazing mural clearer in the photograph.

The blurriness in the photos is due to the poor lighting and no flash. Also an unsteady hand.

Excerpt from Sue Monk Kidd, author, "I first became aware of the Black Madonna in my late thirties through the writings of Jungian analyst, Marion Woodman. It was a revelation to me that hundreds of very old Black Madonnas exist in Europe and elsewhere, and that their darkness is a legacy of ancient black goddesses. I think of the Black Madonna as the White Madonna before the church scrubbed the really interesting stuff out of her. I began to study the Black Madonna, and to travel to her pilgrimage sites, especially in France. I discovered that many of her stories and history reveal a Mary who is openly defiant in the face of oppression. In Poland, South and Central America, and other places, she has been a symbol of revolution. I decided I would create a Black Madonna for the novel (Secret Life of Bees), who had existed during slavery in the South, and that she would be a symbol of freedom and consolation."

The truth is always the truth. 

The truth of today is that we are blessed in so many ways.

The journey is challenging, tricky and sometimes unkind. 

It is worthwhile when deep love is revealed and universal truths prevail.

sparkle & twirl deeply*