Whoa! Morning and a Brand New Day!

Hello World!

It's nice to see you all again so soon! Clearly I'm getting too much free time and too much internet access on my hands...

My train from Paris to London leaves in about 35 minutes and my internet access cuts out in about 12, so this (hopefully) won't be my longest post, but I wanted to share a bit of my morning with you.

Sleeping at the Basilica the night before last and the hostel last night were not the most restful nights' sleep, so I'm going to attribute my 'grrr....world...' attitude when I woke up this morning to the fact that I didn't have enough recuperated mental energy to get a handle on my emotions. Fortunately, a very nice young lady (by the name of Krista, I think?) in the dorm room at the hostel let me bum her iPod so I could Skype with her headset [+1 positive attitude] Then I got downstairs and found that my love was not online yet, so I didn't manage to Skype with Ashley (u.u) but I did get to call my parents (at 3 in the morning their time; sorry!).

I had a very uplifting conversation with my mom about all the difficulties I've had over the past couple of weeks at the Catholic monastery and got to say hey to Dad as well ^^ [+ several positive attitude]

As I wrapped up the conversation and tried to start an email conversation with Ashley, I noticed that the woman sitting with her husband across from me had a Bahai prayer book out on the table. I remembered having read about Bahai before, but couldn't remember any details about it and asked about it. Their words were exactly what I needed to hear at the time: the reinforcement of the values of human unity (not that that is lacking in my world view or recent experiences) *and* emphasis on the individual search for Truth within our own sould and the world around us (somewhat difficult to achieve in the context of a group of men who have dedicated themselves to a single truth) brightened my day, leading to a slight euphoria and exclamation thereafter of alhamdulillah!

Such a beautiful sense of peace and ease of being, the world is a much brighter place this morning. I apologise if my recent moodiness came through pretty strongly in the previous post and brought anyone down, but it's been a good summer for soul-searching.

Love and Peace,
Dave

Another Summer Day Has Come and Gone Away

In Paris, and travelling and lucky to have so many wonderful experiences this summer, I'm ready to go he and to give up travelling alone. It's nice to have time to think and reflect, but it's a lot easier when we know our friends are right there for us when we've had enough of our own company.

So how have the past couple of weeks been? I don't remember how much I've said about the monastery in Flavigny already,so I'm sorry if you end up reading the same story multiple times. I did a five day retreat while I was there based on the spiritual exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola, which was a challenge, but overall a good experience. I'm thinking it was a combination of isolation and aimlessness as I didn't have a particular project occupying my mind after the retreat ended, but I had a rough few days emotionally afterward. I did get invited to dinner at a nice family's place in town though, and they were really wonderful. An American couple and their son and his son and French wife. I really feel like they deserve a better mention than what I've given them so far, so I'll have to share more later, but for now ultra summary mode!

-walked to the vignoble de Flavigny one afternoon and did a wine tasting
-wandered around the town a lot, including one chill night filled with stars when I foolishly attempted to sleep outdoors
-got a ride to les Laumes to catch my train into Paris
-spent the night at Sacre Coeur last night, participating in the adoration of the blessed sacrement
-made plans to meet Miles, the boyfriend of one of the incredibly awesome people I met in Taiwan
-realized that a month ago I was in Taiwan and that I've had a truly epic summer
-realized just how little living in the moment I do and how much more I need to appreciate my life
-realized what a good idea a summer of soul searching is, if it produces results (I'll let you know on that one)

If you are reading this, know that you are loved.