dichotomy

it's lunchtime.

i'm sitting at my desk eating some tasteless frozen entree thing, while reading a book called paris in mind. the chapter i am reading? it's called paris' haute chocolaterie. and yes, it is about chocolate. and paris. and chocolate in paris.

does anyone else see something terribly, terribly wrong here?

a brioche doree chocolate banana tart, taken {and eaten} in paris in april. *sigh*

it's beginning to look a lot like...

i have a job that, at least to a certain extent, requires me to live in the future. case in point, here i am, a week before thanksgiving, and the thing that i have thought most about, and worked most on today, has been christmas.

while i love christmas, and thinking about the yuletide season can hardly be construed as a hardship, for a girl who struggles with contentment, this 'living in the future' can be challenging. and on the eve of {canadian} thanksgiving, i suppose it is a good thing to remind myself that as fleeting as contentment can be, it must be sought.

being thankful for what i have in this present moment. not wanting to be anywhere else {including paris, when i always want to be in paris}. trusting that God will provide all my needs, and that when my wants happen to get met, it is a great blessing.

it always bugged me when the apostle paul said, in philippians 4, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation..." but he never shares what that secret is! i've always thought that it would have been so much better if he could have shared his secret, laid out three steps to contentment. for years i was ticked off by this passage. i felt like paul was holding out on me, keeping the secret i so desperately needed just out of reach.

but while the three easy steps to contentment may not be a reality, a glimpse of the 'secret' is found at the end of that paragraph, when paul says, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." which is such a good thing, because i have tried to be content in my own strength, and have failed miserably, many times over.

and because my good friend g.k. chesterton couldn't let me down, here is what he has to say on the subject:

"true contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. it is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. it is arduous and it is rare."

anyone can be discontent. how i hate the though of being just anyone...

i want my mommy...

what is it about being the least bit sick that can turn a grown woman to a whining child wanting to be taken care of by her mother?

i don't know the answer, but it's where i am tonight...

happy plane friday

this morning, as i waited in streetsville for the first of the buses to bring me to work, i saw nine...yes NINE happy planes taking off from pearson airport. because the sky was so dark, i could see planes from two different runways heading off to their glorious destinations.

so, i spent the rest of my commute figuring out the nine places where i would happily board a plane right now to head off on an adventure to. these are in no particular order (except, of course, for the first one):

1. paris, france
2. new york city
3. romania (especially bucovnia & transylvania)
4. minsk, belarus
5. calgary, alberta
6. the south of france
7. wales/scotland/england
8. poland (especially gdansk, częstochowa and warsaw)
   
9. reykjavik, iceland

where do you want to go?

blank

i've sat here at my computer for almost an hour now, hoping to write something.

during the last 60 minutes i have:

• checked my email.
• thought about going to bed.
• checked out three new blogs.
• thought about cleaning my kitchen.
• looked at the two books sitting on my desk, wishing i were awake enough to read.
• checked my email again.
• thought about going to bed again.
• started writing this.
• made sure i had all the necessary ingredients for a pumpkin pie.
  
• fixed numerous spelling mistakes.

it's been an eventful although not productive hour, but when one is as tired as i seem to be, i don't think there is much hope to actually accomplish anything.

so, i will end this post with voltaire's only too true words:

"one always speaks badly when one has nothing to say."

my dream car

thanks to the good people over at the Paris Marais Newsletter, i have finally found my dream car. it is a prototype of the 1007 model by Peugeot with Louis XVI seats and toile de jouy paint. it's pretty...