Banon in the sun

I know that it is not healthy nor wise to dwell in the past but I think that I need to borrow a bit more of November’s sun this week. Would you agree? 

It was a magnificent morning in Banon, the town that is a ten minute drive from La Buissonade. Remi and I had left the dogs at the cottage for once and it felt wonderful to stroll hand in hand instead of hand in leash. As much as we do love our furry friends, they take up quite a lot of space and energy. Well, to be more precise, ahem, Kipling does. Ben has been trained to be a photographer’s dog since he was a wee pup and is as discreet as can be. 

Alas, the other, our wild one, would not have been welcome on that particular morning – November 11th – at the small ceremony for Armistice Day. It was a moving minute of silence at 11am, one that made me think of sacrifice and those lost for the common good.

Afterwards, each of us carried our thoughts up the hill to the uppermost levels of Banon, a walk that we had surprisingly never done before.

As always, in our quietude there was extra room to see.

Banon is not a flashy town. These are simple homes lived in year ’round.

A certain pride, whether of the national or local kind, touches me.

I wonder what histories have passed through and been forgotten. Hundreds and hundreds of years of footfall, hearts beating.

Shadows shift and a small blue door opens as a well-dressed women steps out to water her plants.

Tending to the present, then… 

…all while respecting the past. 

Perhaps that is the balance I seek today, that certain blast of sun to warm then open me up slowly, slowly preparing to bloom.

to listen:

I have probably written all of this before for a different day for another scene. It sounds familiar. But as I have also already mentioned in one of my favorite posts, sometimes the looseness of my memory is an oddly wrapped gift.