A Chic Paris Lockdown – Part 2: Day 12 – Wallow in the Good

 November 14, 2020

In Day 12 of Fiona Ferris’s book, 30 Chic Days at Home, the author writes “Keep the faith.” We know that hard times do not last forever.  We know that we will get through this CoVid-19 crisis and subsequent crises. Fiona encourages us to to consciously think on the good things going on in our lives even in the midst of whatever hard times are here. We do have (some) control over what we think about (even as most of us have very little control over world events).  Fiona points out that it we feel better and we do better when we keep our eyes and our minds focusing on what is good and positive, humorous and kind.

In Paris today, it was a lovely, cool day with a little bit of sunshine peeking out between the clouds every so often. A few days ago was what the French call “Armistice Day” – the official end of “The Great War.” (They didn’t know  then that “The Great War” would be renamed to WWI and an even greater war, WWII, was on the way in just 22 years.)  It’s good to remember that every generation has their struggles. It reminds me that my own struggles (which seem monumental to my mind!) are comfortingly minute in the overall scheme of things. I can ignore them for awhile and spend my time thinking about all the many amazingly good things (like electricity and hot & cold running water) going on my day. 

One small but happy event happened just a few minutes ago. I tried a new recipe for something alluringly name “Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins” from an interesting low-sugar/low-carb focused blog called “ruled.me”. (Here is the recipe: https://www.ruled.me/cinnamon-sugar-donut-muffins/) I butchered the recipe – forgot to add the baking soda until right before I was about to put the batter into the muffin tins and I accidentally doubled the amount of liquid Stevia used (liquid Stevia is so strong that adding too much can be disastrous.)  Happily, the dough was forgiving and the flavor and texture are pretty good! This may turn out to be a gluten-free/sugar-free “donut-muffin” that can work for my sweet tooth.

Terrific book news today – Fiona just published another book titled The Peaceful Life. My plan for this next weekend going into next week is to settle in each evening after dinner for 30-45 minutes and read what she has to say. Can’t wait! One of my other chic mentors, Chris Crowley of Younger Next Year fame has a new book – fiction this time – coming out next Spring called The Practical Navigator – yay, another book by one of my favorite authors to look forward to! (By the way, Chris, like Fiona, is very much a “keep your eyes on the positive-thinking prize” kind of guy. Reading his work will get you giggling and feeling upbeat in no time.)

Let’s join Fiona and Chris and keep our eyes and thoughts on the many good things going on in our every day.