Sitting here on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean this morning. ..a peaceful Sunday morning in Paris. My travel schedule for May/June has severely curtailed my blogging. Much thanks to Ellen and Judy for filling in.
I am always fascinated when I travel with the opportunities to step back and reassess my own behaviors. This trip to Paris is no exception.
Yesterday my husband and I stopped for lunch at an outdoor restaurant set in a huge park called Tuileries near the Louvre. No sooner had we been seated at a table under a huge free-standing canvas awning that provided shade when clouds started to roll in. The wait staff immediately began picking up outlying tables, not protected by canvas umbrellas and awnings and sandwiching them in among other tables wherever they could fit. As rain started falling, diners picked up their wine and baguettes and cheerfully headed for any vacant covered seats. There was a good deal of laughing and gesturing among the multi-lingual crowd in the ensuring chaos. Eventually, everyone settled down again to enjoy their meals.
What struck me was the cheerfulness of the entire process. Everyone made a choice to make the best of a very wet situation and still enjoy their afternoon. I have often been in situations where weather has intervened and the tenor of a group has shifted to complaining. This scenario of turning lemons into lemonade seems to be a theme of this trip. The previous day at the world renowned Paris Air Show, I watched at thousands of Parisians cheerfully plopped themselves down on asphalt walk and road ways to watch the sky when grandstand seats were all taken.
I am sure that there are many instances in this crowded city where conflict is not greeted as an opportunity to relax and flow with circumstances. But, I wonder if Paris is not offering me a gift of a lesson well known but perhaps not always practiced that I can take home with me and apply in my own life – it is always our choice to deal with unexpected circumstances pleasantly or spend our time complaining about what might have been.
Au revoir - time to go out for a latte and accept my next teaching from this trip!
Judy Warner -
Follow Judy on her twitter account, aikijudy, for reminders to stretch and center!
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