December 23, 2020 The UK announced that they have cases of a new strain of CoVid-19. My heart goes out to the beleaguered nation and to their government and health officials trying to navigate this difficult situation. My host nation, France, has just closed its borders (les frontiers) to all UK vehicles and visitors. Sitting here in Paris, this news is stressful for two reasons. The first, of course, is that all of us around the world are concerned about the impact of this new strain.  The second, more personal, reason for my stress: the Marks & Spencer (a UK-based grocery store) down the street is now cut off from…

 December 22, 2020 In A Chic and Simple Christmas, author Fiona Ferris has a short section focused on how to handle, with grace, a situation in which someone is pressing more food or drink on us and we would prefer to decline. In fact, we may have declined several times and the person still offers. In her book, Better Than Before, author Gretchen Rubin describes food pushers as people who press others to reverse out of a healthy habit. We might hear someone say “You should enjoy yourself!” or “I baked this just for you!” What are some good stock phrases that enable us to slide quickly and easily through…

 December 20, 2020 Yesterday, I wrote about “Conversational Decorum” – how to enjoy social conversation showing thoughtfulness to others and consideration for ourselves. We can do this by using a mental practice session and prepared stock phrases to handle probable trouble areas/people. Today’s topic is along the same lines – using a mental practice session – but focused on how we want to feel around the holiday buffet. Fiona Ferris writes about her experiences with different approaches to food in her book, A Chic and Simple Christmas. My own holiday food experiences are very similar to hers. I love sweets and appetizers and have, in the past, thrown myself giddily…

 December 18, 2020 I wandered through the large Hermes store on the rue Faubourg-St-Honore this morning. It was awash in colorful scarves, leather goods and light orange everything else.  It was also crowded with people. There were two  lines outside the shop of people waiting to enter – one line for people with appointments and one line for those of us without appointments. I was early to meet a friend nearby, so I thought to wander through the store and enjoy the Christmas decorations for a few minutes.  Within minutes my eyes were eagerly scanning the admittedly lovely displays. My fingers itched to pick up this trinket or that darling…