I'M HOME!!!!!!

HELLO FROM THE GREAT USA

I’m so thrilled to be back home and in my own environment!!! Being here in the comforts of my husband, family, friends, Sophie (my Schnauzer), and everything I know and love is magnified by the time away. You take so much for granted until you are away from it and then it becomes more alive than ever. I’m so grateful!!!!

I spent time the last week of my stay in France trying to soak up as much as I could knowing my time was coming to an end . I went to the little museum downtown Agen and found one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen and spent a lot of time on Sunday just perusing around. There were corridors I wasn’t sure I was allowed to enter only to find winding stone staircases going up and down and so many other rooms and areas where they had art displayed. It was quite extensive and I was proud to stand in front of at least 10 Goya paintings. I found out later while bragging about how beautiful the building was, that it had once functioned as a Monastery for the Monks. No wonder it was so awesome. That made it even more special for me.

I went through my last week enjoying the company of my fellow students and having dinner with Lisa on Tuesday evening at Le Nostradamus. It was a great meal and with great company, we enjoyed our last evening we would get together alone. Lisa became one of the most precious people for me in France and we shared so many common beliefs, passions, thoughts, tears and other things I cannot get into. She is such a precious person and I believe was sent to me and me to her during the last module. Her presence in class touched everyone around her. We both grew exponentially during those last six weeks and shared all of our experiences with each other. She became a sister and was a gift!

I learned even more about Nostradamus and how they lived while he was there for those six years. They kept themselves warm by keeping the animals underneath the primary floor. I can only imagine how much smell they had to tolerate in order to keep warm, but was a smart plan for the animals and them not to freeze. The owner of the restaurant was so generous and spent a lot of time answering any questions Lisa and I had for her, as well as explaining everything line by line for us on the menu LOL. It’s a small restaurant but the care and concern of the owners adds such a benefit to anyone who is privileged to dine there and the food was delicious as well.

Our class finished up the mural and the beach scene and it was so wonderful to learn how to create an ocean and the look of it being so real, it looked like we were taking our pictures in front of an ocean scene. I am tickled to come home with the two last pieces we did in the last six weeks. This makes a total of 27 panels I have from work I’ve done under the direction of Michel Nadai. Quite an extensive portfolio.

We did four days of prospective, a couple days of composition, and a week of color theory with a wonderful teacher named Helene and then Michel worked with us on the murals for the remainder of the class. It was all so surreal to learn all of these techniques and yet to know, our time was almost over and we would all be returning to our lives, me knowing I am forever changed by all of the experiences of what I had learned about art, about the French, about myself and the personal things I learned about relationships and so much more.

We all went to a Moroccan restaurant with a belly dancer to entertain us on Thursday evening, our last evening together. We presented Michel and Kyoko with some gifts from all of us and we had a great time just enjoying each other’s company.

On Friday, Lisa left and then I and then the other classmates were to leave just after class finished. It was both profoundly a happy and sad time to leave. I am forever grateful for everything and everyone who touched my life and changed my world in all of this. A special gratitude goes to Michel and Kyoko for all that they did to cause all of this to happen to and for me. What I learned because of them is so much more than the actual teaching of Michel and I am so thankful for everything that happened to cause me to grow.

Jacques was kind enough to drive me to the train station and I was waving to everyone who had followed us downstairs to the car, as we drove away, I told Jacques, “it is finished, I did it and now I get to go home.” He said “there is a time for everything to begin and a time for everything to end.” He was so kind to take me into the train station and direct me to where I was supposed to go to catch my train to Paris. I told him how generous he and his girlfriend Genevieve were to me and thanked him and told him he was a great representative of the generosity I experienced with some of the French. He smiled and said he knew I was that way too. It was a sweet moment.

Once in Paris, I realized how exhausted I was and rested on Friday evening, determined to make it to The Louvre on Saturday. I did just that and if you haven’t had the pleasure of visiting there, it’s quite the experience and it would take a week or so to see all of it, so I determined to see the French, Italian painters as well as the famous Mona Lisa. It was such a pleasure to stand in front of those beautiful paintings and know what I had been taught and experienced and to see it in a different way that I could have ever seen it before. There was such an appreciation for what I’d learned and what these Old Masters had accomplished in their lifetimes.

I found a quaint little café close to where the Mona Lisa was and stood in line to meet this beautiful woman named Jacqueline. She turned to me and spoke in eloquent English for me to be patient and we would be seated, that the French are impatient and that they all would leave the line and we would get ourselves a table. We became instant friends and ended up sitting together while she enjoyed a café and me a salad. She was most kind and wanted to know who I was and what I was doing in France. When I told her of my artist training from a Frenchman she was most interested. She was so knowledgeable about The Louvre and I asked her many questions about how some of these pieces were acquired and because she knew so much, proceeded to tell me all about the stories about the pillages of war, marriages, unions and agreements as to how some of these pieces were acquired. It was amazing stories.

She was also very candid and open about the French vs. Americans and other people and told me almost verbatim what another Frenchman had been so generous to tell me while I was leaving Paris at Christmas. Both of these people well educated and well traveled. They were so kind to me and I appreciated their insight as to some of the things I’d been pondering about the differences. It was almost as if my heart questions I’d been trying to understand and assimilate were answered by these two precious people who were in my life for a moment, but a special one. If you would like to learn more about this, please ask me personally.

Jacqueline invited me to go spend some time with her at an Oyster Bar restaurant very close to the Eiffel Tower and we enjoyed each other’s company. She was so kind and I told her how some of the French had been so generous and kind to me and that I will always have an affinity in my heart for those who touched me, a total stranger while I was in their land.

I’ve been home for two weeks and am finally feeling my bearings at home. The knowledge of knowing this journey is over and all the lessons with it is such a blessing. I am thankful for everything that happened and how it happened, so I could learn what I learned.

To sum it all up, I’d say I learned to get out of my own way. I learned that I am the only one that can stand in the way of my own accomplishments and success. There is great joy in this alone. I tore down emotional walls I had up for protection, as my ego wanted them in place. I faced my ego and realized how much our egos can play a part if we allow it. It only leads to hurt, for ourselves and for others who are in our lives. Just as I shared earlier, there is gold underneath the huge stones in our way. We cannot walk around these hindrances, we have to face them and get them out of the way. Being in France and experiencing all that I experienced helped me to see this and so much more. I saw the Laws of Attraction in rare form and this is even more cemented in my belief system. I saw how powerful that truly is.

What is happening in my life since my return is evidence of what was accomplished on a personal level. Let me just say that opportunities are happening without my even working for it. There is great joy in all of this for me.

May we all find grace and peace and most of all love in all of our individual journeys and may we all be more open to ourselves, honest and full of integrity. Once we own things and admit them, they seem to go away. This life is short and full of hope and glory for those of us who are courageous enough to see, hear and learn.

I learned that fear is nothing but a cloud that dissipates as soon as you start to walk through it.

May you all be blessed!!!!!

With great love and affection and thanks for your portion in all of these learning experiences and for the ones who played a huge role, how could I ever say thanks??? Tom, my children; Tyler, Katie, Grae, Keri, Robyn, Susan, Sly, Cse, Lily, YOU are the ones who held me tightly and I'm SO thankful for you in my life. I'm so much richer with you in it!!!!!!