Experiments with the Truth or If walking feels too slow you are living too fast...

Ten years or so ago (who is counting anyway), when I was travelling in India , I got a tummy bug so bad, it was all I could do to hobble to the bathroom for the necessary, and to wobble out to the hall to pick up my plain rice and broth, all that I could stomach. Having been on the road for 8 months, staying at the most in one place for a week at a time, I was sick and tired of travelling.

I stayed holed up in that hotel room hiding and nursing myself better for more than a week. I could describe every feature of it in detail from the mustard colored carpet, the grey-white linen on the bed to the soft cool marble floor in the bath and the wet smell and sound of the never ceasing air conditioner, which I thanked my lucky stars for as it was as hot as hell. It was then, holed up in that hotel room hiding from India that I read all-in-one-go, Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography "My Story of Experiments with the Truth ", a dog eared and undoubtedly pirated copy bought from a dubious bookseller on a dusty street corner for a rupee or two.

One of the most important books I have ever read.

Gandhi presents us, by example of his daily existence, a conscious and thoughtful lifestyle that demonstrates the value of caring for ones self, by growing ones own food, weaving ones own cloth, cleaning ones own house, doing ones own laundry. A lawyer from a wealthy family living in a time where society dictated servants, Gandhi's communal and self sufficient existence sent out a clear and powerful message of change. I still remain impressed by the courage and strength of this singular man who succeeded by successfully challenging and changing the political status-quo with a massive peoples passive resistance, indeed his message is still with me.

The time and place and the powers at work reflected differently on his ideas then, than the things at work in our culture today, and but his ideas are no less relevant.

Does it seem to some of you in our day of the National Enquirer and Hollywood and Britney and consumer debt that some of us seem to be loosing our way? Floating soulless in the face of the fast material world, motivated to look outward towards images of increased social and financial status instead of inwards to our true value and sense of self? Gandhi's message of living thoughtfully and consciously, taking the time to pause for reflection and being self sufficient are all things that have always seemed to me to be things that restore our somewhat lost sense of self.

Slow down, take time to value yourself by caring for yourself and for others. What a simple and yet profoundly truthful message. Or is it?

So what is truth, is it fixed; or fluid and ever changing?
How does this or any truth connect with the context of daily reality?
Can we really have "Experiments with the Truth"?

It seems we have been having our own set of experiments in our household, as (anyone else?) seems when you are seven years old these things come into question, and it does take some thought and energy to figure out EXACTLY what the TRUTH really is.

Dear Son,

First....I wish you were old enough to read Gandhi.

I love you SO very much and I am watching you try to figure out how much to tell the truth and how much you can get away with 'fudge'. Even though you don't realize it you have a very odd expression in the very back of your eyes and around your mouth when you are "eating fudge'... so just like my Mom told me, and I will tell you, and you will tell your kids...here are some simple rules to help with the truth...

1)Your Mom always KNOWS when there is 'fudge' around...

2)Contrary to Gandhi the context of our family is not in flux and the TRUTH is not so very fluid.

3)The TRUTH is simply the truth, it IS ONLY ONE THING, it does not change depending on who is hearing it, and it certainly will not change no matter how much you want it to.

4)If you tell a lie you will get into double the trouble than if you tell us the truth.

5)When you ALWAYS tell the truth people feel like they can trust you, no one ever disbelieves you, you will be seen as a good honest person, someone to be relied upon... and that just feels good.

6)Telling the truth is simple, you will never get caught, and you never have to try to remember where you left the "fudge"....trust me it is much easier...

7)I will do the very best job I can to help you learn this very simple but ever so important TRUTH about life... because I love you...more than anything.

8)And because contrary to popular opinion...I REALLY don't like "fudge"...

Love you forever, Your Mom.

Christmas in France with the children

A trip to Strasbourg to the christmas market was lots of fun, here the children watch the Giant Manege Noel, while we wandered the city's different Marche de Noel which sold anything for kids candy to decorations to regional foods to crafts.

Strasbourg in close to the border of Gwermany, is about a 3 hour drive from Dijon, and is famous for its Christmas Markets.



Then as it darkened we wandered the streets searching for the perfect gifts, admiring the lights, sipping hot mulled wine and looking for a little nibble.
It was Magical.



One of the Markets we visited was a Romanian craft market and we were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of some regional dancers with enourmous bells tied around waists singing and parading around. Lily was not too sure of them...



This is a shot of the Christmas Train in Dijon, as we also have a Marche de Noel here.

So to those of you who have been checking and have had no blog joy my apologies.

I will try to post a little more regularly and try to get over my blog fright…kind of like stage fright.
Let me know what you want to hear about. (Is mundane OK??)

So we had a fabulous trip back to France, the gods were all looking the right way (either away from us or towards us not sure….) We had bulkhead seat so the kids could stretch out . I could stand sleepy guard (not sure where they will go on a plane but none the less feel compelled) and we all managed to get a little shut eye….tho I caught Riel peeping a few times at whatever in flight (“in fright” in his case) adult movie was on the big screen.

The kids (I have to hand it to them) really seem to know the drill now and were just as good as gold all round. Our train trip was uneventful even tho there was some Old "Gaseous Grand Dame" in the truest sense of the word who happened to have the 4th of our 4 seat booth (to her obvious delight) giving us the hairy eyeball for most of the trip. Like it is a crime to be a kid. Sheesh.

So we are back in Dijon.
You ever feel like you are moving from one series of piles to another?
For this summer for us it was a rather consistent stream of

**pack** unpack** pack**laundry** pack** unpack** pack**laundry**

and then all over again. I guess I have nothing to complain about.

I must confess I was starting to feel a pull to come back here around the start of school (quelle surprise), as it is hard to leave home and all the nearest and dearest. As you can see by the photo went throught this bizarre uncontrollably tacky desire for Canadiana... even bought some good old red and white roots gear...now to see if I have the guts to wear it.

Sooo..We are now back in the throws of settling into the new routine for the school year. Riel is starting "CP" which is the French equivalent to Grade one and Lily is in “Petite Section” like PRE jk (if you can believe that). For those of you who may not know the school day is staggeringly long, starts at 8:45 and ends at 4:45.Oh my goodness!!! Poor little souls. Riel is so proud of his new “homework” he brings home every night. (See how long that lasts….)

The kids are settling in better than ever before after the jetlag. So either they are figuring it out or we are. (not sure)??

It seems to be a case of anticipating the natural rhythms of the last time zone and not letting them fall asleep when their bodies want them to until the “new” right time in the current zone.
No easy task …like feeding them candy non-stop all the way to my Mom’s on the Canada end while singing songs at the top of our lungs to bribing them with movies to keep them up at this end…

Oh La La.

We made it!!!

Ola... it is nice to be here...but what an oddysey of a voyage, seems close (especially to Canadians who measure distance by time not kms) but it's not.

We travelled across France due West since we decided (unwisely) to leave on the beginning of the European vacation period but by all regional roads, seems like a quaint idea...no? I think we saw every old stone barn and sunflower from Dijon to The Spanish border.

We travelled through Beujolais, sort of neat, beautiful chateaus and vineyards, bathed in sun ( but call me a snob I like Burgundy better) it was very hot with our car thermo reading 37 in places...phew!!

Finally we made it to the west coast- visions of deserted beaches simply waiting for us and only us in our Caravan danced in our heads...hmmm.
We managed to have a great morning at the ocean bodysurfing and kite flying beside the immmense sand dunes that line the coast and then continued on..

Onward and southward, across the Spanish border and west along the sea.
Past crumbling seaside villages colouful with immense banks of sky blue and rose hydrangeas, now we are in the Picos D'Europa a mountain range just south of the northern most coast of Spain. It is gorgeous, cool and green.
The kids had a great afternoon swimming in the pool, and are now sleeping as we pour over our guide books and maps to figure out what to do tomorrow.

Funbag

Almost ready to go to Spain.

Phew!!

Just spent the last 4 hours repacking risotto and granola into little baggies and grouping those baggies into bigger baggies...

Ok... so am I the only person who does this?

We have the "beverage bag", the "breakfast bag", and the all too important "Goody Bag" (in a strategic location (and seemingly deserving of capitals)).


We have a Pandora's box of medication's for every possible ill - real or imagined and a plethora of bandages, swabs and ointments...

We have clothing to suit every possible temperature or climate, alone or worn in several disparate combinations (fashion to the wind)...grouped by kid, colour and size...

Every possible sanitary, disinfecting, rehydrating or bug repelling solution available in wash, wipe or spray format (travel size...),

Bathing suits, wet suits and a brand new leopard skin regulation conforming teeny tiny set of swimming trunks for the "Big Guy"

Almost everything checked off the "before we go" list-

sunscreen CHECK...

hats CHECK...

maps CHECK

funbag CHECK

GO!!