{"id":5312,"date":"2019-04-12T19:37:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-13T02:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=5312"},"modified":"2019-04-17T20:06:27","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T03:06:27","slug":"lollipops-roses-at-sea-04-12-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=5312","title":{"rendered":"Lollipops & Roses \u2013 At Sea \u2013 [04\/12\/2019]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"It occurs to me that I really should clarify something \u2013 to the few readers that I have left (there aren\u2019t many of you, but that\u2019s okay with me, one day I *may* open the blog back up to the general public, but not today). Anyway, what I need to clarify is this: I\u2019m not unhappy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I know I sometimes sound<\/em> like I am. But rest assured it is less unhappiness and more\u2026pensiveness, perhaps tinged with a bit of confusion. I\u2019m working through quite a few things right now, after all, my life is about to take a very big turn.<\/p>\n

It came to me recently that I have been running about trying desperately to balance everyone and everything around me, my mind completely full of problems to solve, numbers to calculate, huge<\/em> decisions to make what feels like nearly every minute of every day \u2013 that I have\u2026in some ways forgotten about myself. Which is foolish, because in some ways I also feel like I\u2019ve been nothing but<\/em> self-centered, partially because<\/em> there is so much going on. Anyway, I have taken a lot onto myself, some of which I actually needed to take on, some of which I didn\u2019t\u2026<\/p>\n

So, since this is a quiet contract \u2013 very quiet \u2013 I am taking it as a welcome opportunity to\u2026make myself relax.<\/p>\n

And as such, I have rediscovered reading. Sounds silly I know, considering that I\u2019m sure it seems like all I do<\/em> is read; but it\u2019s something I haven\u2019t really made a lot of time for in the last few months.<\/p>\n

Oddly, it seems my reading choices keep falling into a pattern these days: Paris. Every book I pick up, every one that catches my eye, seems to be either set in France, or in Paris itself. This is not on purpose on my part, I am not ..seeking out Paris; it just seems to keep finding me. Don\u2019t believe me? Five Quarters of the Orange<\/em> \u2013 picked it up because of the author, found it was set in the small town on the muddy banks of a river in occupied France. Enchantee<\/em>? A magician navigating her way through the churning currents of Versailles in the lead up to the French revolution. And the list goes on\u2026<\/p>\n

As such, I suppose it\u2019s not a surprise that I ended up back in Lansquenet-sous-Tannes; and the world of Chocolat. It\u2019s been a very long time since I visited Vianne Roche, I had almost forgotten just how much these books touched me\u2026.one in particular: the Lollipop Shoes, the surprisingly little known continuation of the story of Vianne. In this book, gone is the red-caped, light-hearted heroine of the original, her magic dimmed, her light shuttered. And into her purposely careful world, waltzes a woman who is so close to what she used to be\u2026Zozie\u2026with bright red shoes and an attitude of \u201cF*ck you, I\u2019m Fabulous\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

Changed the way I looked at a lot of things that book\u2026so perhaps it\u2019s not a coincidence that it wandered back into my life just now\u2026just when I am finding it most important to remember that there absolutely is<\/em> magic everywhere\u2026<\/p>\n

When I am happy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It occurs to me that I really should clarify something \u2013 to the few readers that I have left (there aren\u2019t many of you, but that\u2019s okay with me, one day I *may* open the blog back up to the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-below-the-waterline","category-reflections-below-the-waterline"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-1nG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5312"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5329,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5312\/revisions\/5329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}