This is the final post of 12 in our summer series on using whatever ingredients you have — the sour or the salty, the savory or the sweet — to find beauty in life. Thanks for stopping by The Lemonade Stand for a taste.
We’ll begin a new fall series beginning September 3. I won’t be writing you next week because I will
be in . . . France!
Yep, Mike and I are giving la République Française another chance. (Wait, what, did something big just happen there? Did we miss it?!)
I studied French in school and have always been fascinated by its rich culture, but my first experience in the country was a bit of a bust. For our silver anniversary nearly 25 years ago, Mike and I booked an if-this-is-Wednesday-we-must-be-in-Brussels AAA bus tour—a sort of speed dial, whirlwind trip of Europe.
While we were delighted to catch quick glimpses of la Tour Eiffel, l’Arc de Triomphe, and the famous Louvre, our tour guide talked us into forking over a wad of cash for an evening show in the Moulin Rouge district, assuring us doubters that the famously risqué caberet show “would be so clean even the nuns on our bus would applaud.”
Call me a prude, but we didn’t go to Paris to see people leering at women wiggling their jiggly bits in our faces, so to the jeers of a few in the audience, Mike and I left before it was halfway through. (The nuns stayed, bless them.)
We also had an unfortunate experience or two with waiters who ignored my awkwardly accented requests (“Pouvons-nous avoir un menu, s'il vous plait?”), in favor of serving guests who weren’t so obviously Yanks.
But I’ll never forget the beauty of Paris or an exchange we had with an older woman whom I stopped on the street with an urgent request for directions. “Où est le métro, s'il vous plaît?”
After responding in rapid French, she laughed sympathetically at my look of bewilderment.
“Vous êtes américain, n'est-ce pas? Thank you for trying to speak French! Here, I’ll show you the way to the station.”
As we walked, Mike and I commented that some of her countrymen didn’t seem to care much for Americans.
“Oui, it’s true,” she said. “But I’m old enough to remember. It was the Americans who liberated Paris. If not for your people, we would all be speaking German!”
She wished us a warm au revoir, and with that simple exchange she altered the tide of our day. I still recall her kindness.
People. It’s always people, isn’t it, not the scenery, history, or cultural treasures that make travel memorable.
And that’s why we’ll be meeting three of our favorite people on the planet in Paris this Thursday—Mike’s sisters Susan, Linda, and Lori. They’ve invited us to joint them on a river cruise of the Seine. We can’t wait.
I’ll be back the day after Labor Day with a new letter-post, but in the meantime, I hope to see some of you this fall!
Here are the places I’m scheduled to speak. (Click on the links for more info.)
September 27-29, Hebron, New Hampshire-- Camp Berea Women’s Fall Retreat
It’s been my great privilege to teach for Berea Ministries several times in the past, most recently at all three of their fall retreats in 2021. This year I’m thrilled to be serving alongside Chris and Stephanie Teague, who comprise the Nashville worship duo Out of the Dust. (If you haven’t heard their unusual marital story or listened to their music, please check out their website.
October 4-6, Lancaster, Pennsylvania-- Faith Church
This weekend retreat is for the women of Faith Church of Allentown and their guests and will be held at Black Rock Retreat Center. I’m excited that our daughter Amber will be joining me there!
October 11-13, Cedar Lake, Indiana – Cedar Lake Women’s Retreat
This venue in northwest Indiana isn’t far from where we used to live in the Chicago suburbs, but it will be my first time teaching there. It’s about a nine-hour drive north of our current home, so Mike will spend the weekend visiting his sister nearby while I’m at the retreat. If you live in the area, I’d love to have you join me at Cedar Lake.
And hand-on-heart, do you know what? I’m eagerly looking forward to Pennsylvania as much as Paris, and the fields of Indiana as much as the brilliant fall foliage of New Hampshire. Why? Because I'll meet people in each place whom I’d never come in contact with otherwise.
Barbara Streisand got it right. People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.
If you have any travels planned for this fall, please share in the comments below. And if not, please know I’ll be carrying you in my heart wherever I am.
You are my people.
Au Revoir pour l’instant!
~Maggie
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