Travel offers an abundance of life lessons so long as we listen, take a step back and understand there is a rich opportunity to be absorbed should we want to do so.

This week has been sprinkled with a variety of different places I have called home, a few tourist explorations and quite a bit of travel via train and car. There have been many moments of absolute joy, and a few moments of frustration. But in those moments of frustration I tried to take a step back, removing myself from reacting emotionally, and trying to figure out why I was frustrated. What it required of me to do was reset, take note of what worked and what didn't and move past it. 

Case in point on Wednesday, I needed to find some me-time (which sounds absurd as I am traveling on my own), but I did, as I was no longer in a vacation rental and completely on my own. My schedule, while mine, was still someone else's, and this was an adjustment for me after two weeks of a schedule that was primarily all mine. And so I tried to find a healthy me-time activity: visiting the gardens of Chateau Villandry (check out my IG Stories - Highlights - French Trip, Part 2). The medicine was spot-on, and the day continued to be lovely, most memorable and gave me some perspective and space to contemplate so that I didn't react hastily. 

Upon even more reflection and a few more days removed, I became aware that this was a learning opportunity. This was a lesson given to me to observe and apply to my life.

Sometimes our lives show us something in others to reveal what we may appear to be if we ever embody such a behavior. When we recognize what it feels like to be in this type of presence and/or energy, if we catch the lesson, we can learn what we never what to be or how we never want to act as we do not want people to feel the way we felt in that particular instance. And while travel doesn't have to occur for us to learn such a lesson, in this case, it was magnified as I didn't have an escape, I was traveling and thus had to work through it as healthily has I could.

On the flipside, I have been making a list of all of the moments that have cultivated comfort in my days while traveling. The list is getting quite long, but I am trying to examine the smallest, yet often most powerful detail that made such a moment so lovely. By doing this I hope to see what I can do upon returning home to welcome such moments in my everyday life. This has been a fun activity, and my journal is always at the ready to take note so that I don't forget a thing. Again, the gifts of travel, non?

As a weekly subscriber I wanted to alert you to a mini-blog vacation I will be taking upon returning home next week. As you probably know, I am eager to see my boys and make up for the time I was gone from them (my befriending of each dog I meet along my journey has been extremely heartwarming - thank you Jules, Margo, LouLou, Gibson and Ghetto!), and knowing that a little bit of jetlag will hang on for a few days when I arrive home, I will be taking next Friday's newsletter off and returning to our regularly weekly schedule the week of July 23rd. Monday's podcast episode will be new (July 16th) and there may be a few posts next week as inspiration strikes, but the weekly This & That and the weekly newsletter will not be posted next week. I have never taken time off during the summer in the nine years I have been blogging, so for me, this was a hard decision, but I think for my mind and to ensure quality of posts and writing, and as we have a big rest of the summer ahead (French Week in August!!!!), it is best. Thank you in advance for understanding, and I cannot wait to begin organizing and breaking down all that I have seen and experienced and sharing it on the blog in the coming weeks. 

This weekend is full of moments to celebrate when it comes to sports (Wimbledon, Tour de France, the World Cup) and French history (Bastille Day!), so I look forward to taking it all in as best I can. As well, I am going someplace very special today (check out my IG late Friday the 13th), and while I do not know what it will be like, I had to take the journey to find out. 

May your weekend be a breath of fresh air, full of moments to savor and delicious food to be enjoyed. Until the week of the 23rd of July, I'll see you on the blog. 

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