Friday, January 9, 2015

For Paris, because I love you....




Our history on this planet is one of very wonderful things happening and very terrible things happening.  

As a sociologist, I can give you a hundred good reasons for the last few days.  A psychologist could give you a hundred others.  As could a priest, a counter-terrorist expert, a militant.  All would be right and all would be wrong because they would be trying to quantify, clarify, something that seems to  be so absolutely un-quantifiable.  

And so I think I will leave the sifting through the horror to others, the planning for the future, the trying to figure out why things are they way they are and how we might make them the way we want them to be.

What I know is that love is all there is.  

And when I think of Paris, I think of love - love baked into croissants and macarons, loved poured into fine wine, love painted into amazing art, love carved into beautiful churches and buildings, love in the joy of living, love locked onto bridges.



And so I send my love to Paris tonight.  

But not just to the nooks and crannies I have discovered thus far.



I send my love to every part of it, a soaring love, a creeping love, a grieving love, a weepy love.

One that is directed at all of Paris, but especially to those who are in pain, those who are in sadness, those who are angry, those who are disaffected, those who feel hopeless. 

For what else is there to do if you love Paris?

Hope' is the thing with feathers


'Hope' is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—

And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—
And sore must be the storm—
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm—

I've heard it in the chillest land—
And on the strangest Sea—
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb—of Me.

Emily Dickinson

bird, eiffel, freedom, paris


Paris, je t'adore...

xoxo wendy

21 comments:

  1. CITY OF LIGHT WMM one of my favourite Dickinson poems. The nightly crowds in the Place de la République — bastion of the French Republic’s democratic values — standing shoulder to shoulder and hand-in-hand at the feet of Marianne, that embodiment of France, reassure a little. Hopefully shared love, strong ideals and citizenship can do what all the police, intelligence, politicians and leaders cannot, start to turn the senseless tide.

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  2. Like that poem and an apt one for today. Well done Wendy,

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  3. Love Emily, amazing to think she never left the house and all her wisdom was within her four walls

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    1. I know! Some days I think I am channeling her - not the brilliance but the stuck at home!

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  4. If only there was an answer to the madness. My prayers are with those who are enduring such senseless tragedy.

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  5. I think we learned in kindergarten-- "use your words." The ones that did not damage the world. So sad.

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  6. What a beautifully constructed post this is, Wendy, linking the Eiffel tower with a flock of birds and Emily Dickinson's lovely poem. Paris holds only happy memories for me and I grieve for the sorrow that these horrific killings have created. So utterly pointless.

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  7. Another tragic episode in mankind's history. But I feel strongly that the French will never let anyone stomp on their freedom of speech and continue to get away with it.

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  8. Our world is going mad. And it is frightening. Soothing words Wendy. x

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  9. This post expresses how many people feel - ..however despairing of mankind we become we have to hang on to the hope that with time and peace and love things will change.

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  10. So succinctly written: you capture many of the thoughts which i have heard people express in the last few days. The poem is apt - love her work. So much sadness and so much wastage of life...and yet it is a reminder for each of us to treat each day as precious as one just never knows when it will inexplicably change in one instant and forever.

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  11. Paris has seen so much horror and I suspect that's why they've always clung to beauty. Lovely post.

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Kindness is a virtue...