French Friend

Yesterday I finished reading A lady in France which I had assumed was a memoir of the 'I live in France, food and travel' kind. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was more about Jenni's life in the US, Taiwan as a teacher, her Christian journey and how she and her husband did eventually end up living in his home country - France. Motivated to email her given her description of her brother's suicide and a phrase - that she was living life with the handbrake on - I was pleasantly surprised to receive a very moving email reply from her a few minutes ago. Stating that she had found my email very moving, it made her cry as she read it to her husband, I found it wonderful that someone so far away could really care about how I feel.

 
I began this book late yesterday and am almost a third of the way through. It is very light, like its title it is only about his daily ritual of eating, walking and writing a journal/blog. I am finding it quite boring and also knowing that he does not stay his intended two years in Paris but returns to the US is a bit of a let down. Other memoirs I have read of foreigners trying to live in France show the difficulty one has assimilating into their community. Reality and our dreams often do not meet. I think his age, 70, may have been a factor but we need to inject some reality into our dreams.

I keep checking the Amazon.com website for new and interesting books, follow up on leads of free books posted on the WLM page, check out books mentioned on other websites and generally keep adding to my collection. I am always disappointed when books recommended as free are not available for purchase here, I believe it is a decision that Amazon makes, not the authors.

I have decided to read more about the concept of Mindfulness that was suggested to me last year, I feel it may be the way to extricate myself from the fear of slipping back into the levels of anxiety I expressed last year. I have several books on this topic on my kindle, perhaps now is the time to explore this genre as the year begins to wind up.