A-Maze-ing: Is It Same or Different? (France-is-New Orleans-is-Home)
It’s amazing to think about the life I now live in France. It is amazing because I am astonished how the “same is different” yet the “difference is the same” when I think about here and my other home, back in New Orleans, Louisiana.
In France as in New Orleans, depending on your location, it is quiet, beautiful, picturesque, and full of old, rich cultural traditions. In both places, I can eat marvelous food, pastries, and drink great coffee or tea. In both places, I have been blessed to be surrounded with loving, kindhearted, and friendly people. There are some different habits, which are secret treasures in France (stopping for lunch daily at noon, dinner at seven, and walking as my mode of transportation almost all of the time) that I’ve loved adopting. Nothing here — new, different or otherwise — is in any way driving me to want my time here to hurry over the coming months.
I am not ready to return to New Orleans. I left there because my desire was to leave the monotony (busy, busy, and busy) of everyday life, so that I could find my quiet place of rest. Little did I imagine I would find such a beautiful, quiet space as this village, which is at once so new and so familiar. It seems n some days like I have lived here forever.
As I gaze at the picture that I’ve attached here — an aerial photo of l’Abbaye where I’m spending my semester — it appears like my historic home is a maze. Maybe this represents our amazing life in France? Because just as one can get lost in a maze, one can and will come out of the maze finally, knowing more than at the point of entry. So, too, are we lost in our own world here — with the rush of academia brought to life from Monday — Friday by les professeurs. Until the weekends come, and we are fall into a different experience of time and space, as the center of our excitement shifts to be about visiting chateaux, museums, and quaint little towns that have existed for a thousand years or more before our own visits and journeys.
No, I am not ready to leave this place and space, which are offering me amazing adventures and learning every day. (And also the quiet I’ve needed and that brought me here from my beloved and never-forgotten New Orleans.) Because here it is the same and different every day from my home. And in noticing all of that continuity and rupture, there’s also something waiting for me almost every day: serenity.
