monday meditation

“Ce sont des femmes sur des îles: une grande solitude féminine, une solitude qui a l’air enchanté.” – Yannick Haenel, A mon seul désir

Welcome to my monday meditation. I am thinking the end of the quarantine may be in sight. I don’t know when I will be called back to work (or even if?) but I want to make the most of the time I have left at home. For many this extended solitude may be scary and/or lonely, but I have always appreciated time spent alone. I want to cherish my solitude.

The quote above comes from essays by Yannick Haenel about the tapestries of La Dame et la Licorn (The Lady and the Unicorn) at the Musée de Cluny. I need to put this on my list of things to read, it looks charming (it would also be a good way to work on my French). The quote was actually displayed in the museum. I have always wanted to see the unicorn tapestries and finally got a chance on my last trip to Paris. I have been fascinated with unicorns as long as I can remember. While the quote has nothing to do with unicorns, it really struck me – a grand feminine solitude, an enchanted solitude.

cultivate

I think one way to take advantage of solitude is to use it to cultivate oneself. Reading as much as you can for sure. I hope to cultivate me, feminine me, enchanted me, to be me again and also to be the Parisian me I always thought myself to be. Solitude requires you to accept the reality of being alone with yourself and learning to face your feelings also instead of trying to escape them. Then you go deeper, build a more authentic self, needing no one else’s approval but your own. I shared similar thoughts in my last monday meditation, where I wrote about taking time.

une femme

I can picture myself as une femme sur des îles – particular île St. Louis. We stayed in a apartment there on our last trip and it was enchanting. One thing I am going to do for my inner femme is to work on my French. I registered for a course on Coursera – Étudier en France: French Intermediate course B1-B2 offered by École Polytechnique. In my journal the other day I wrote that I want to be gentile, purposeful, meaningful, deliberate, compelling, loving. I imagine these are the qualities a femme sur les iles would cultivate in her enchanted solitude. I am hoping if I keep up with the journaling, meditation, reading, and just appreciating my solitude I will strengthen those qualities.

So I seemed to ramble a little in the monday meditation, but that’s ok isn’t it? Isn’t the definition of blog an online journal? And isn’t that the purpose of a journal, to write your thoughts and meditations, even if they do ramble on? Merci for joining me on my journal journey. I will be sure to have some interesting content and links for you on Wednesday in this weeks quoi de neuf. A bientot!