12/21/2007
This is my first night at the Prevotes’ beach house in Le Touquet. They invited me to spend Christmas with them, and how grateful I am to be here. Above being awed by the beauty and profound simplicity of their home, I am once again awed at their hospitality and generosity…While Olivia put Gatien to bed, J-S and I cleaned up the kitchen as he asked about how I celebrate Christmas. So hooray for an opportunity already to talk about how my family celebrates a most important day.
Olivia and J-S seem to think I am “sensible” to all things French, as they said while discussing some American visitors they had who didn’t seem to quite appreciate what the Prevotes thought they should. That said, I am glad that to some extent I have found favor in their eyes. As I headed upstairs I told them if I cry during the weekend, just ignore me. I’m just very happy…
12/22/2007
Salty sea air has been replaced by the scent of slowly burning wood, the clattering sound of late-night summer patio dinners by sparkling lights in all the trees. It’s Christmas in Touquet but when I close my eyes I can see summer. At 9:30pm the sidewalks are deserted except the few dog-walkers and stragglers such as myself; but summertime will enliven these trottoirs with sunset strolls, children careening on bikes, awkward teenage laughter. Although 7 months away, I can feel it and see it.
But Christmas here is slow and lovely, days having no agenda other than to be together and live. Chloe, Loick, and I rambled through market today buying items for lunch. This after noon we played at the beach (who knew sand could be so great at 4 Celsius?)…I believe tomorrow includes a lunch with Olivia’s family and ice skating in the evening. If it is anything like today it will be pleasant and enjoyable.
As part of the day’s occurrences, Olivia and I shared a bit about our families, more than what I’ve known or shared before. I enjoyed it so because I felt like we entered new and more personal territory. What a gift, I realize, and I look forward to my days here…There is this new French evolution in my soul I believe, and I only pray it grows so as to remain. As J-S said to me, “you won’t be able to leave France. You can’t live this life in America. You’ll find this out and have to stay.” And then I heard him tell his brother-in-law, “She is American but French in her soul.” Realizing what he said, I sat in my chair quietly reveling as well as seeing the great compliment just paid me. Those words I will treasure always. Always. Now, I pray, may I be granted the grace and privilege for them to recognize what also is in my soul. And may they desire it.
12/23/2007
…Interestingly I have begun considering too the political versus spiritual nature of “nation.” When I read “nation,” automatically I think nation-state with heads of state, governing bodies, borders, and policies. Of note, however, is the affect of “nation” in the Kings, Isaiah, etc. Yes, it is a political reference, including kings and priests (political appointees at the time) but as I read carefully the Old Testament, I see in the spiritual economy how we must reconfigure how God looks upon nations. This is a hard and tedious consideration as it cuts to the base and heart of God’s character. It also directs us to see and live in the world as God sees it (and more!).
Although Christ exploded the Gospel with himself and his proclamation of begin “the Way,” a broadly inviting Gospel existed clearly during the time of OT recordings. While the people of Israel specifically receive teachings and recordings from Yahweh God, over and over references are made to other nations worshipping this same God. I find it personally important to remember that the OT is a specific historical record of a specifically historical people. With it alone we are unable to know what takes place between Yahweh God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and other peoples. All we can discern is that while God calls the nation of Israel “his,” they are not the only to worship him. Some verses I have particularly marked I’m including here: I Kings 8:41-43 and II Samuel 21:1-6 (7-14)…
…As I reflect, Christ’s coming to earth coincided with a significant historical moment when religiously the people of Israel were free yet lived economically contained. While they continued to practice the worship of Yahweh God, too much and quickly they were having to/felt a need to protect it from others—as a away to preserve their national and political identity. Somewhere in my head I imagine God turning to Jesus saying, “You better go now before this gets out of hand/becomes irreversibly destructive.” In the same way the Israelites of the time of Judges failed to testify of God to the new generations, so too with time did they forget to remember that Yahweh was (and is) first and foremost for all. The person and message of Jesus, then, upset what had become an exclusive religious tradition tied to national and political identity. First of all Jesus was a-political in a way no Jew was expecting. They wanted a king like David but instead received a carpenter who spoke of an other-worldly political order. They had a profound need to be ruled and gathered as a politically chosen people but Jesus instead spoke of all peoples being God’s children. As a French pastor pointed out recently, Jesus did not establish a new religion. He corrected one. Perhaps our psyches can better handle a new one as opposed to our configurations being wrong. Jesus above all reminded the Jews about the base of their faith practices—this is about worshipping an all-welcoming Yahweh God…
(later 12/23)
Winter Welcome
I heard the ocean whisper
its gentle winter welcome
Lulling my soul with its
softly lapping rhythm
I heard spoken
Partout partout
Everywhere all around
I thought it land
but it was sea
I thought it far
but it was near
Encircling engulfing surrounding
Inviting
Rider riding in the distance
Rumble felt underground
Trot and gallop
Canter stop
It’s all in the rhythm
flowing here
Gray cascading overhead
Life teeming underneath
Dog, they leap
Balls, they fly
Children, laugh
And adults they roam
Kicking sand, clumps soft and hard
Left to lie by the retreating tide
Quiet its exit for the evening
slipping out to its larger home
Foaming waves, amidst the fog,
rise and fall with silent push
of cloistered currents
The ocean extends its winter welcome
to the flaneurs taking holiday
And bids farewell to the final remnants of sunny hours
Come again, I heard it say
to us all
Left standing in its absent wake
It is strange
this winter ocean
Cold yet warm
Not yet closed for business
indeed never
For its doors are not those of the sun’s glowing reach
But of our sleeping secrets
stretched out before it
As only invitations of the sea can rouse
12/24/2007
Shells of Faithfulness
Some have stones of remembrance
We have shells of faithfulness
Marking the hours or days or trips
Wherein we have claimed its presence
Washed up, dug in
To darkened sand
Etched with water’s careful hand
Picked up, placed in
To slimmed pockets
Attached to sides of pants and purses
Remants
of memories
of promises made and kept
of October evenings on the East Coast
of “no way, Hosea’s” at Galveston
of balmy summer nights on the Port A Gulf
of frigid sunsets in Delaware
of Noel au Touquet
I can still taste the salt that told me in the end “it was good”
Familiar words, they’ve become
More promises and remnants to come, they say
These shells, though empty and dormant lie,
Speak to me of life lived and life awaiting
12/24-25/2007
Noel with the Prevotes
By meal time at 7:15pm they mean to say all will arrive by 7:30pm. Gifts will be opened. The apero and adults gifts will begin after the children. This will be about 8:15pm. Apero will include foie gras on pain epice, petit quiches, and champagne. Dinner a table will commence around 9pm. But the Croquilles St. Jacques must be sautéed first in golden butter and plates with them topping golden endives with butter and crème fraiche will arrive from the kitchen. We will all take a piece of bread. Next will be the traditional dish hailing from the Massif Central (central French countryside)—lentils with turkey, a particular sausage, carrots, and potatoes. Dollops of mustard will be glopped on each plate, because this is what the French do. All of this will be served with bubbly water, white wine, then red. Good reds from 1992, 1998, and 2002. When asking a Frenchman what the bouquet consists of, I will learn that for all the swirling and sniffing, he does not know but has a friend who takes seriously knowing wines. Me, he will say, I just like to drink it. After the main course, cheese will be served. Side note: this is not the kind of meal where you use the same plate wiped clean with bread as is typical French. Indeed we have four plate changes. Along with the cheese we have more bread, with dried figs. I find this combination strangely agreeable. By this time it has passed 11pm and I have become more fluent, both in comprehending and speaking. I understand almost all of what is being said. One would think cheese would put us all over the edge, but indeed two ice cream selections along with Mamaw’s fudge will. For the first time in my life I will not be able to finish my espresso.
During the meal I will inevitably be discussed…I calmly and quietly take all their conversation in releasing nary a word. Grandmother Prevote will ask how many children I want, a topic earlier discussed with Olivia. I want to both have and adopt, Olivia relays. But it is not the same sense, I am told, adopting. Before I can say a word, Olivia speaks for me. “But, well, she is guided by something strong,” she says, looking sweetly at me. And those words are enough to make an already enjoyable 5-hour dinner affair the most significant moment of this most blessed holiday.
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