Locks and Bones

Hello there! We are still, amazingly, in the Luberon and thanks to the generosity of our wonderful hosts (more about them later), will stay a few days extra. This land tends to hold on to us, our visit last September stretched similarly.

So, I will send off a bit of Arles, which is only an hour and a half drive away but yet is so far, far from this mountainous slow waltzing of day into night into…Always in travelling, we have the time to ponder what holds us back, how we put on a good front, what propels us forward. Our locks and bones. Sometimes symbols, physically literal and known to shake like a baby’s rattle…

Detroit Urbana, Sam’s Pawn Shop

“Our greatest challenge.” 
There are so many questions that come to mind when mulling over that phrase. And I certainly don’t have any answers. But I wonder if these photos of Sam’s Pawn Shop on Michigan Avenue in Detroit conjure the essence of a major problem, that of the alienating and elongating distance between the have’s and the have not’s in our world. What is the fuel for that fire?
How can we put it out?

Today’s post was my contribution to the monthly By Invitation Only series. To see the other responses, please click here.

Can you hear it?

Can you hear it? No, not the peaceful munching of the lambs. Listen closer…
Olé…olé…OLÉ!! The flamenco guitars are rising to a crescendo. Yes, as hard as it is to believe, it is already that time of year again, the Easter bullfights or La Feria de Paques. Think that a bit of a dichotomy? Yes, I do too. But rather than philosophize, Remi and I are going to take the high road and…“Run, better run, faster than my bullet”… straight of out of Arles and dive into The Quiet of the Luberon.
While our previous cabanon had already been reserved I let my fingers do the walking and found what I believe will be an equally charming option right outside of the little village that I dearly love. 
Can I hear a hooray?
I may be exchanging bunny hopping golden light for a drizzle of gray. The Sun Will Set but me cares not. Not one whit. I have a stack of books and a demanding nap schedule to adhere to. Light a fire in the fireplace, pour a glass of wine…these Foolish things remind me of you.
So, I am going to take a bit of a breather (save for perhaps a By Invitation Only post on Tuesday, internet service permitting)…but promise to come back with stories to tell…

…best to pack up the puppers…
…and take flight.
Because can you hear it? The road is calling…
For all of you that are celebrating, I wish you a very Happy Easter and an Excellent Passover!
PS. And as if I haven’t left you with enough links to explore while I am gone, here is one more an exceedingly charming interview on France 3 with Nancy Kate, the blogueuse behind the hilarious blog Bread is Pain.

Lost in the looking

I haven’t felt like talking much and so it goes that I haven’t felt much like writing either. Opening up the drawers of my desk, I look to see if there are any extra words laying around, in the bottom, in the corners and find only perfume vials and paper clips. It is not sadness, nor its opposite, just quiet. I close the drawers and let my gaze rise out the window like a balloon escaping a tiny fist. The clouds are lazy. 
They drag behind the beat of the guitar strum of the homeless man who is sitting on the sidewalk just to the right of our front door. I say homeless but I don’t know if that is true, SDF in French or Sans Domicile Fixe. He was there yesterday evening as well, drinking a beer and asking about the dogs. He used the polite “vous” form and wished me a pleasant evening. In turn I offered that he would have Bon Courage with the rain. Which is gone today. So perhaps that is why he is playing.
Remi walks past my desk and the orchids near my screen shake their hearts with each step. How thin these old floors are, how differently built. We must have sounded like elephants to the family that lived below. But now they’ve gone and we have the building to ourselves. Which feels both luxurious and isolating, the space that contains us. Luckily, we have the country so close at hand, the land where we can keep walking and often in silence. I don’t have to find the words to express the precision of such beauty. Cowboy rope mountains, twilight petals. I can get lost in the looking. We all have our internal answers, those without syllables that we just know. What comfort that brings. It sings.

Have a wonderful wag of a week, everyone…

Detroit Urbana, Part two

Detroit continues.
Even if an Emergency Manager has been brought in and there are persistent rumours of the city declaring bankruptcy. 

I was literally overwhelmed by all of your comments regarding my previous post in this series.  How to begin to respond? I admit, I felt defeated in the face of something I am grappling to understand but it would seem that the people of Detroit aren’t down for the count just yet. 

*Update: I am really thrilled to be working with the amazing D. A. Wolf again today on her fantastic blog, Daily Plate of Crazy. So if you are looking for a Provence fix, you can find it here!*
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