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I am always amazed by the melody of our lives. One week can be truly opaque and confusing, and the next full of window-opening moments that offer clarity and more
certainty of sorts, thus calm.
As this year's annual French Week has progressed, I have shared more details about my month-long trip to France that readers have asked about. As I mentioned in a few of the posts, I am still not fully certain of what I have absorbed, but what I am realizing is that with each week, even each day since arriving home, what I have absorbed becomes more clear.
I will be sharing more specific thoughts
on these realizations later in the fall and winter, but ultimately, it comes down to being patient with ourselves. As a dear friend said recently, the most beautiful of conundrums to discern is the one in which a dream of a trip takes place and you are left to be the Sherlock Holmes to figure out why it happened.
I'll take that challenge indeed, and perhaps when you look around your life, instead of seeing the problems or the obstacles, be thankful for the
events, the people, the world, that enabled them to be choices in your life. What if we didn't have the choice to change, adjust or improve our lives? What if we were just stuck exactly as we are today? Initially, to some this may sound appealing, but with each day, new information is presented to us, new concepts that we couldn't have even fathomed yesterday are brought to light, and in these revealations, we see more of what we can become, of what the world can become.
So today consider where you are right now in your life. What is perplexing you? Can you shift your perspective on that conundrum? Can you see the good fortune? Do what you can so that you can see the good the conundrum is revealing to you, and then be patient with yourself. The answers come, so long as we let go and remain open to what the universe encourages to cross our paths.
Speaking of crossing our paths, many of you tune in
to the podcast as you head out on your walks or go about other errands during the week, and I want to thank you for bringing The Simple Sophisticate along. This coming Monday will be the last episode of Season 4, and I still cannot believe we have completed four seasons since kicking off in September of 2014. Recording more than 52 episodes each year, it has been four years that have flown by.
Moving into our 5th season, which will begin on Monday September 3rd, the
schedule will change a bit to give me time to catch my breath, ensure quality episodes and produce easy-to-listen-to interviews. What exactly will that look like? On Monday August 27th I will post a week-by-week schedule of the full 5th season, but essentially, it will be 30 episodes over the course of 12 months, with only two months off entirely as we begin to incorporate the new vodcast into the schedule. Don't worry, there will ALWAYS be a new post on Mondays whether
there is a new episode or not to kick off the week as I know many of you have shared appreciation for this regularlity. Today, I just wanted to give subscribers a head's up about what I will go more into detail about in a few weeks. But between now and September 3rd, there will be two new episodes - one tomorrow - Saturday (see who my guest will be below), and one on Monday the 20th which will focus on preparing for the fall shift into work and/or school and a fuller daily
schedule.
Thank you for taking the time to stop by as often as you have already during the 3rd annual French Week. It has been the busiest French Week to date with more than 17 new blog posts, three giveaways (make sure you enter by Saturday August 18th at midnight - Pacific time) and even more videos to watch and enjoy (video topics - Lunch with Julia Child, a tour of the grounds of Villandry in the Loire Valley, visiting the Markets of France AND a
welcome video from me!). And we aren't done yet! The final post will be on Sunday the 19th with a round-up of the past eight days and the announcement of the winners for the giveaways. I encourage you to stop by because even if you are not a winner, there will be two extra bonuses made available to readers of TSLL for a limited time only that you won't want to miss.
Okay, I'll will wrap this up and let you enjoy this annual event. You may need two cups of tea or
coffee to make it through as there is an abundance, and so many wonderful guests have stopped by to take part. Without further adieu, have a wonderful weekend and thank you for subscribing.