09 October 2016, 14:33 CDT

As I sit here, in my recliner, I felt my blood pressure increasing as I surfed the internet, and looking at Court Connect to see who had filed what in the last few day. Then, I remembered, it’s Sunday. A day of rest. A day of not worrying about work. A day of a needed break for the both of us, after a long week of work.

So…I started looking at vacations. I pulled up a cruises website, only to find my heart aching to return to the City of Light. Try as I might, I cannot seem to get Paris out of my mind. For good measure, it has to be the very best place I’ve ever been, and I’ve been to a lot of places.

Life is a joy, if you allow it to be so. Sometimes, people can try their darndest to make you feel inadequate, unworthy, or downright angry, but when I see a photo of my grand Paris, all those thoughts disappear and I remember what it felt like to have the wind in my hair on the highest level of the Eiffel Tower. I remember what it felt like to see Morrison’s grave in Pere Lachaise, after my travleing partner thought I would never find it amongst the thousands there. (Oh yee of little faith! The “considerable member” was calling my name.) I remember what it felt like to stand on the train station tracks, wondering how many millions of others had traipsed those same tracks last year and the many years before. I remember how it felt to put our lock on the (forbidden) bridge and make a wish to return to Paris as soon as possible, that being our last night there for our first trip. I remember, and it made me smile. I could immediately feel my heart rate slow, my blood pressure go down to a normal level, and my smile begin to spread across my face. I remember, and I hope I never forget.

Pulling up the Eiffel Tower on a webcam, with our time being around 2 and Paris time around 7, both pm, it made me smile, thinking of the evening we drove our stick-shift Jeep back from Normandy and just happened to drive through at the hour mark, when the twinkling lights were all aglow. We have a vide of that, or at least Sweetie does, since I was doing the driving that day. Who knew that this girl from a tiny town in northeast Arkansas would someday drive a stick shift on the Champs-Elysées, around the Arc de Triomphe twice, while listening to our French-only GPS navigate us out of the city and three hours north? Just by the luck of the draw, he left his wallet in the hotel room, and thankfully I had mine, so that we could still rent our car from the basement of the Louvre and drive to see the beaches of Normandy that windy and somewhat cool day in September. What an experience – something I will never every forget (hopefully).

I feel my mind filling up lately.  Then, my mind slips back to Paris, and I feel myself not caring in the least about those who would do me harm, only for their own egos. Let it go – and move on. Nothing is more present than the present, and nothing is more precious than time. Time never stands still.

So, as I watch my Paris from a webcam, hoping to catch it on the hour for the twinkling lights, I will dedicate my afternoon to a book on humor, finding a new worthy podcast that might entertain me on the drives to and from work, and dreaming and planning for our next adventure, next year, when we will again be somewhere in Europe, hopefully, if the cards fall right. Travel brings a person full circle – if you don’t travel or at least read about it, I think you miss out on so much that life has to offer. See another culture, live that culture and don’t “Americanize” it. Bring that culture into your heart, and you will be, indeed, a changed person, even if it’s through a webcam.