Parisian Pain Perdu / Wandering Heights
Weekly Special
My dear beloved customers,
Let me treat you with our delicious weekly special Parisian Pain Perdu! For those who don’t know what “pain perdu” is, it’s what anglophones call French toasts but in French its exact name means lost - in the “wasted” sense of the word - bread.
A few weeks ago, I read a post from
in which he told the story of a stroll he took in London, getting lost in the process :
I always love his stories, relate a lot to them and this one reminded me of one of my own.
It was right after my burnout, in what I call my awakening period, trying to figure out what life really was about, and who I really was in the process. I had attended a group video call held by Neale Donald Walsch during which a woman told the story of a homeless person with a lost look in his eyes she had came across and how addressing him with a few kind words, giving him back his human state in the process, had sent her in a very positive and loving energy that connected her with the Universe and somehow rewarded her later with a touch of its magic.
That story stuck with me for a while and made me realize how important the way we look at people, consider them, simply smile at them can be for we are all connected to one another whether we realize it or not. So, a few weeks later, I was in Paris for my work and decided to take a long walk from Le Sacré Cœur, in the North of Paris, to my hotel which was in the far South end by the Seine river.
When I arrived at one foot of the Eiffel Tower, there was a homeless woman sitting on the curb by the park with a paper cup in front of her. So I told myself that it was the perfect time to embrace my new way to look at life and I went to her, gave her a few Euros, looked her in the eyes, smiled at her and gave her a blessing. She smiled back at me and I felt indeed instantly very good about myself and the world around me.
Then I silently said: “OK, Universe, now that I’m aligned, show me what you can do!”. I resumed my stroll on an upper walk delimited with a beautiful tree line on one side and a gorgeous view on the Seine on the other, not exactly knowing the path to my hotel, but accepting willingly to get lost and trusting the Universe to take me on a blind stroll was kind of the point. So I absorbed myself in the beauty of the landscape and kept walking.
At one point, the promenade ended at a crossroad and resumed on the other side so I had to go down a few steps to join back the curb and I landed in front of a souvenirs shop which reminded me that I needed a present for my daughter and I went in.
When I got out of the store, I faced a bridge upon the Seine and I was offered with 3 choices: getting across which I didn’t want to because I knew the path to my hotel from the other side, going back up to the other side of the promenade along the river where there was a group of men that sent me a very strong gut feeling of “not safe” so I dismissed it too and that’s when I saw, right by the left side of the bridge, a hidden metal staircase that seemed to lead near the water and what I thought would be the Seine banks below.
But what I discovered instead was simply amazing! I found myself on a large stretch of land in the middle of the Seine, landscaped as a long park. I didn’t know where I was - it turned out I was on what is called Swans Island / L’île aux Cygnes - but it was so beautiful I kept on going under two colomns of thick leafy plane and birch trees, passing by families with kids and joggers, enjoying the scenary with as much gratitude towards the Universe as I had inside of me but it wasn’t the end of it, far from it.
When I emerge from the tree canopy, I found myself at the foot of a great staircase on top of which proudly stood the Parisian Statue of Liberty shining in the light of the setting sun. I was breathtaken.
The Universe had sent me the vivid message that by being connected to my inner love and trusting the Universe to lead me where I needed to go - my hotel was very close to where I was - would, at the end of the day, bring me freedom, joy and awe.
What a gift I had been offered! Believe me if I tell you I never doubted the Universe’s magic after that, even with my still lingering overwhelming trust issues. Two years later, I’m still struggling with my control freak reflexes, but that stroll stayed with me to remind me that I shouldn’t be afraid to get lost as long as I enjoy the view for the Universe knows the way better than I do.
Sometimes, accepting to get lost is the best way to find ourselves.
I couldn’t close this post without honoring the allusion to Kate Bush’s song in the title which has nothing to do with that story apart from the fact that its vibration always put me in a great place!
Lots of love,
Geay
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