tag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:/blogs/feed-from-corrinnemay-blogspot-com?p=1Feed from corrinnemay.blogspot.com/2019-02-02T13:10:37-05:00Corrinne Mayfalsetag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/17002222012-11-13T14:15:00-05:002024-02-06T10:26:08-05:00Claire and Eeyore<style>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">27th October 2012</span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">I don’t recall when the love affair started, but it’s so
sweet to see Claire babying Eeyore. Just this morning she woke up and she said
: “Mummy, I had a dream.” And I said : “What did you dream about?”</span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">And she said : “I had a dream about Eeyore. And Eeyore was
dreaming about me, his mama.” Awwww… so sweet.</span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">She’s now got a little cardboard box cover turned upside
down that she uses for Eeyore’s bed and some towels for linen and some doll
accessories for a blanket and pillow for Eeyore to sleep in and he sleeps on
top of the bedside table that is just next to her little mattress bed on the
floor and she likes to pretend that Eeyore is in the top bunk bed and she is on
the bottom bunk bed. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">She carries him to bed with her at night and wakes up
looking for him in the morning. Eeyore’s little pink ribbon fell off his tail
the other day and she was visibly upset. I didn’t have time that morning to sew
it back on, so we put a little red ribboned hairclip on his tail and she was
satisfied with that for the rest of the day. That night, I secretly snuck him
out of his little cardboard box bed while she was sleeping and brushed off my rusty sewing skills
to fix the little pink ribbon back on his tail. He was brave and didn’t squeak
one bit. <a href="http://statigr.am/p/309749697899963079_44211831">Eeyore getting his tail mended.</a></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">It’s so cute too to see her reflect, in the way she treats
Eeyore, the way that I mummy her. She likes to ask me to help Eeyore cry for her when she
pretends to leave him. So I oblige with a high-squeaky voice pretending to be
Eeyore and I whine : “Come back Mama!”. I guess that where Claire is concerned,
I have become the voice for Eeyore. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">The sweetest thing is to see her nursing Eeyore. She’ll
sometimes tell him, just as I’ve told her, “not now, Eeyore, later when we get
home.” Or sometimes she’ll ask him : “Eeyore, do you want the other side?”</span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">Oftentimes, she has asked to bring Eeyore to school with
her, but the preschool doesn’t allow the kids to bring toys from home with them
to school. So Eeyore shares the ride with her in the carseat and has to sit
patiently in the car, as she tells him : “Eeyore, I’m going to school. You stay
here and wait for me. When I come back, I’ll give you a hug and a kiss, o.k?”</span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">So oftentimes, in Claire’s pretend world, Eeyore IS Claire
and Claire is Me. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=p5ue70jWjJU:R4BGOGrOZIY:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=p5ue70jWjJU:R4BGOGrOZIY:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/p5ue70jWjJU" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/2508632012-11-13T06:15:00-05:002023-12-10T12:07:03-05:00Claire and Eeyore<style>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">27th October 2012</span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">I don’t recall when the love affair started, but it’s so
sweet to see Claire babying Eeyore. Just this morning she woke up and she said
: “Mummy, I had a dream.” And I said : “What did you dream about?”</span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">And she said : “I had a dream about Eeyore. And Eeyore was
dreaming about me, his mama.” Awwww… so sweet.</span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">She’s now got a little cardboard box cover turned upside
down that she uses for Eeyore’s bed and some towels for linen and some doll
accessories for a blanket and pillow for Eeyore to sleep in and he sleeps on
top of the bedside table that is just next to her little mattress bed on the
floor and she likes to pretend that Eeyore is in the top bunk bed and she is on
the bottom bunk bed. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">She carries him to bed with her at night and wakes up
looking for him in the morning. Eeyore’s little pink ribbon fell off his tail
the other day and she was visibly upset. I didn’t have time that morning to sew
it back on, so we put a little red ribboned hairclip on his tail and she was
satisfied with that for the rest of the day. That night, I secretly snuck him
out of his little cardboard box bed while she was sleeping and brushed off my rusty sewing skills
to fix the little pink ribbon back on his tail. He was brave and didn’t squeak
one bit. <a href="http://statigr.am/p/309749697899963079_44211831">Eeyore getting his tail mended.</a></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">It’s so cute too to see her reflect, in the way she treats
Eeyore, the way that I mummy her. She likes to ask me to help Eeyore cry for her when she
pretends to leave him. So I oblige with a high-squeaky voice pretending to be
Eeyore and I whine : “Come back Mama!”. I guess that where Claire is concerned,
I have become the voice for Eeyore. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">The sweetest thing is to see her nursing Eeyore. She’ll
sometimes tell him, just as I’ve told her, “not now, Eeyore, later when we get
home.” Or sometimes she’ll ask him : “Eeyore, do you want the other side?”</span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">Oftentimes, she has asked to bring Eeyore to school with
her, but the preschool doesn’t allow the kids to bring toys from home with them
to school. So Eeyore shares the ride with her in the carseat and has to sit
patiently in the car, as she tells him : “Eeyore, I’m going to school. You stay
here and wait for me. When I come back, I’ll give you a hug and a kiss, o.k?”</span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">So oftentimes, in Claire’s pretend world, Eeyore IS Claire
and Claire is Me. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=p5ue70jWjJU:R4BGOGrOZIY:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=p5ue70jWjJU:R4BGOGrOZIY:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/p5ue70jWjJU" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/2405112012-10-25T10:35:00-04:002024-03-19T06:10:20-04:00First winds of Autumn<style>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;'>I love this time of the year when the wind whips up a furor
and spins leaves and twigs around, blows doors open and puffs away the infamous
LA smog to uncover the majestic definition of the mountains.</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;'><br></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;'>It’s almost as if mother nature is taking the time to sweep
away cobwebs and dust bunnies and anything else that is keeping us from having
a reflective introspective autumn.</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;'><br></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;'>Just as nature quiets down towards the end of the year,
I too find my heart yearning to quiet down and listen to the silence in the
air, the language of my heart yearns to speak again with the creator of each
heartbeat.</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;'><br></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;'>The soft orange glow of the afternoon sun, a low fire
kindling within, exuding warmth as the weather cools down.</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;'><br></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;'>I never experienced the seasons when I was living in
Singapore. Yes, there were the seasonal monsoons and hot and humid periods
within the year, but the trees didn’t change colour nor did the temperature
soar and dive throughout the year.</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;'><br></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;'>Here in Los Angeles, mild though the seasons may be, the
change in the weather feeds my moods. I find myself more energetic in the warm
summer seasons when the trees are brisk green and the sun a harsh yellow,
almost challenging me to partake in some physically demanding activity. Mellow introspection comes calling in the autumn. The leaves rustle, they dance and they whisper secrets I long to remember.</span><br><br><span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;'>The first
winds of autumn, whip the fallen leaves in a frenzy outside Kavin’s studio and spin
round in circles. </span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;'><br></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;'>Like dizzy schoolkids singing a nursery rhyme, holding
hands and dancing in circles, the leaves seem to partake in their own
celebration. Perhaps freed from the bonds of their lineage to the tree from
which they grew, they can now float free for a little while before they dry up,
wither and crackle into bits of leafy dust to be swept along the gravel of the
road. </span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;'><br></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;'>Soon, new buds will form and cover the tree again. But for
now, for now, the whisper of the wind beckons and calls us to celebrate life.
For in the quiet, reflective moments of autumn, we find the inspiration to live
anew.</span>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=xTOYG76KBn8:LbYJTrmUMPM:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=xTOYG76KBn8:LbYJTrmUMPM:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/xTOYG76KBn8" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/2350692012-10-17T22:24:00-04:002022-05-28T08:08:32-04:00Reflections upon the passing of my friend, Ann Pickavet.<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">Ann Pickavet passed away sometime in the early morning hours
on the 15<sup>th</sup> of October. Heard the
news from Tez. I’m still in disbelief. I just spoke with her last Saturday and
we had talked about her singing the tenor part in the choir; the possibility of
her hiring an aide to go along with her for the Wednesday night rehearsals. And
now she’s gone. Felt sad listening to her voice on my voicemail, knowing that I
won’t be hearing from her again at least in this life. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">I miss my friend.</span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">She had a gruffness and spunkiness about her. A distinct
child-like naivette and wonder. What a blessing that she was prompted by the
holy spirit and followed that prompting to go for confession the past few weeks
just before her passing. I can just picture her going : “Get out of here!” when
she realizes she’s meeting our Lord and our Lady and finally seeing them face
to face. Dear Ann, what a wonder it must be. How strange to talk of you in the
past tense. Now you’re the one who must teach me all about the Lord. I miss
you, Ann</span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
</div>
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">==========================</span></span><br><span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
<br><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">How swiftly and timely death comes for us all.</span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">I still remember Ann asking me last Saturday if I wanted her
St. Teresa of Avila book, ie. the one she’d received in the mail by mistake.</span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">She’d ordered a St. Therese of Lisieux book and received a
St. Teresa of Avila one by mistake. I’d told her that I wasn’t sure. Ann passed
away on the morning of the 15<sup>th</sup> of October and somehow that night, I
just wanted to check which feast day she’d passed away on. I googled and
discovered that she had passed away on the feast day of St. Teresa of Avila!
God has quite a plan, and a sense of humour to go along with it! I
was thinking to myself, you’ve got to be kidding me!</span></span><br>
</div>
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">===========================</span></span><br><span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
<br><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">Just this year alone, 3 people I’ve been friends with at Our
Lady of Peace parish have passed away. It’s been a strange year. Yet it’s a
constant reminder to me to not leave things that need to be done, undone. Oh,
the things that we take for granted, the things that we hoard and hold dear.
Will we be able to take that with us?</span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">I helped Cathi, Ann’s daughter, and Sandra, Ann’s aide, to
clear a little bit of Ann’s apartment yesterday. There’s a lot of stuff in her
little apartment. Cat Fancy magazines, bags of plastic bags folded into neat
little triangles, cards from people that she’d saved in a shoebox, newspaper
clippings, cat toys, and it made me ponder…what will I leave behind when my
time comes to go?</span></span>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">As it is, I have so much stuff…I have unfiled, bank account
statements, ASCAP statements, cheques waiting to be banked in, scraps of
information and coupons that I’ve left unorganized in some pile in a drawer,
stuffed toys in boxes that have accumulated dust from the years of being
untouched, clothes that haven’t been worn in years, underwear and socks with
holes in them…photos, tons of digital pictures left uncategorized…it would be
an absolute headache and mess for anyone to deal with, and I’d be embarrassed
about leaving those things behind; scraps of receipts from years gone,
documenting purchases of inane things like hairbands, sanitary pads, items left
unreturned.</span></span>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">There’s no turning back once we step through that death’s
door. No going back last minute to clear things up, to say goodbye, to give a
loved one, one last kiss. The saints got it right. They lived each day, each
moment as if it was their last.</span></span>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">For who knows the mind of God, the will of God except the
almighty Himself? So we should make haste to make hay while the sun still
shines.</span></span>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">It’s often in times too of a good friend or loved one’s
passing that we often regret not having given more, not in terms of material
things, but in terms of time. Time is the precious ‘commodity’ that can’t be
bought. Just like the sand that keeps trickling downwards in the hourglass till
it all empties out, our lives have a fixed number of days and nights. But I,
like most other people, often live not seeing or realizing this truth and life
more often than not lulls us with a false sense of security; telling us to clothe
ourselves with the belief that this earthly life is forever.</span></span>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">Lord, I want to end my procrastinating ways. I want to make
every single moment count and not let it become a blur. Can you help me with
this too, mother Mary?</span></span>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">I should change the title of my to do lists, from ‘Things to
do today’ to ‘What would I regret not doing if I died at the end of this day.’</span></span>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">Oh Lord, keep us vigilant. Help us to realize the brevity of
this gift of life.</span></span>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">=================================</span></span><br>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">As I rummaged through Ann’s papers, I found a little sealed envelope
with the handwritten words ‘KK’s first years’ on it and handed the envelope to
Ann’s daughter, Catherine.</span></span>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">Ann left behind little neat written notes documenting her
daughter, Cathi’s first years. It was touching to see Cathi opening up the
envelope to read her mother’s thoughts.</span></span>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">It got me wondering, what will I leave for Claire, so that
she knows how much her mummy loved her.</span></span>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">For sure, I’ll leave her my journals, and there will be
pictures, birthday cards, notes, letters; but truly what I’d like to leave,
won’t be tangible; I mean, what happens if all these journals were to be burnt
in an accidental fire, or lost, or damaged? What if all my pictures were
accidentally deleted?</span></span>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"><br></span></span>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">So often I try to make permanent, the fleeting moments of
our existence, I try to take a picture of moments I hope she’ll remember, like
the doll-house Kavin built out of building blocks, or moments we’ve shared a
table and a drink at Peets, or just moments where Claire is running around
dancing in her ballet outfit. My iphone and my computer have at least a
thousand photos of Claire and she’s just 3! So often I hope to make a permanent
memory with this technology, with pieces of paper!</span></span>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">But truly, the essence, the real goal in all this, is to
write, somehow write these memories, these moments in the cherished walls of
her heart, and in those recesses of her mind, where in quiet moments of
solitude, reflection, peace, sadness or joy, in those moments, I will be there
with her; long after I am gone. I think that is the hope of any one who has a
child or a friend or a lover. All one wants at the end of the day, is to be
remembered because ones’ life, one’s actions, one’s way of living, made a
difference.</span></span>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">I take comfort in the fact that scientists have confirmed
time and again, that our human brain is capable of storing so much information.
Much more than my measley macbook can.</span></span>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">I want to store the memories of love and sacrifice in the
walls of my brain, in the recesses of my mind and my heart. I want to write the
message of my love for Claire and for Kavin and for all my loved ones, on the
annals of their hearts and minds. For that is all we can hope for, for once
this material world vanishes, Love will be all that remains.</span></span>
</div>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">Love is our Alpha and it shall be our Omega. Love encompasses
all, and Love binds all and Love remains in all.</span></span>
</div>
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</div>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">================================ </span></span>
</div>
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">On a separate note, by extension, I think I now understand
better how God would like us to love Him and how He loves us. Just as I yearn
to clothe my loved ones with the memory of how I loved them, God longs for us
to know of His deep sacrificial love for us. He wants to write the message of
His love upon our very hearts…</span></span>
</div>
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<span style='font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;'><span style="font-size: small;">“I will put my laws in their minds and I will write them
upon their hearts. I will be their God and they shall be my people.” (Hebrews
8:10)</span></span>
</div>
<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=PhJI2EKJkxI:huufK43Du3I:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=PhJI2EKJkxI:huufK43Du3I:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/PhJI2EKJkxI" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1586572012-04-18T08:02:00-04:002023-12-10T12:01:50-05:00Crayons and Crooked Lines‘Crooked Lines’ is the title of Corrinne May’s 5th and latest album, a title that came to her as she watched her daughter drawing with crayons one afternoon. <br><br>“She was drawing what seemed to me to be random, crooked lines all over the drawing paper, but she was telling me exactly what she was drawing- namely, a butterfly. And I thought to myself, perhaps<br>that’s how it is in life. Life is never a journey that goes in a straight line. Just like sailing, we reach our destination with ‘zig-zaggedness’, with crooked lines.”<br><br> “There is an ancient Portuguese proverb that says ‘God writes straight with crooked lines’ and I think it’s such a lovely saying,” says Corrinne, “because it expresses the faith that even if something seems like a ‘crooked line’ in our lives, God is able to use that for our good.”<br><br> “For truly, it’s the detours of our lives, the crooked, whimsical, circular paths we take that mould and fashion us. Oftentimes, it’s only in looking back at the path we’ve taken that we can truly appreciate why certain things had to happen in our lives, to bring us to our present circumstance.”<br><br>It’s been five years since the release of her last album ‘Beautiful Seed’ and in that time, Corrinne has indeed taken a detour from her usual comfort zone. She’s spent much of her last few years focused on being a mother to her almost 3 year old daughter Claire.<br><br>“Motherhood has been a surprising journey full of twists and turns and changes. Claire’s growing up so fast…I just don’t want to miss a single moment of this little person blossoming before my eyes.”<br><br>“I love being a mother. It’s humbling, it’s grandiose, it’s scary, it’s exhilarating, it’s peaceful, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done in my life, bar none.”<br><br>The album opens with a lullaby, “In My Arms”, the very first song that Corrinne wrote for the album. <br><br>“I spent a lot of time in the first few months of Claire’s life, just holding her and nursing her till the wee hours of the morning. And in the stillness of the night, the idea for this song came to me. It still brings me back to those moments, where the nights were sweet and long and filled with the scent of milk and the sound of Claire’s breathing while I held her in my arms and soothed her to sleep.”<br><br>Other songs on the 13-song album include “When I Close My Eyes”, a song inspired by an iPad app. Corrinne explains : “Claire has this iPad app where a little girl imagines doing these extraordinary things whenever she closes her eyes, things like reading her favourite book in space or being the fastest runner in the world. I figured I’d do my own version of what I’d love to see if I closed my eyes to dream.”<br><br>The song also features an unusual blend of music instrumentation.<br>“I heard, in my mind, a gospel choir singing back-up on the chorus and also had in mind the Irish whistle for the instrumental solo. It’s not everyday that these two elements get thrown into the same song, but I’m glad that it turned out just as I’d hoped.” <br><br>In a departure from her usual piano-based songs, the guitar figures more prominently on her latest album.<br><br> “I missed playing my guitar,” muses Corrinne, “so once I picked it up again, all these songs that had been waiting around in my head to be played started introducing themselves and begging to be written.”<br><br>“It helped that I had the support of an artist endorsement by Taylor Guitars. I love their guitars and just having a lovely guitar to play with helps inspire new songs!”<br><br>The result is an album of songs that is just a tad more boisterous, more playful, more rhythmically-driven than Corrinne’s previous work ‘Beautiful Seed’. The 13-song album also features Corrinne’s favourite musicians, some who have been playing with her since her days at Berklee College of Music in Boston. <br><br>“Eric Holden and Craig Macintyre laid down the bass and drum tracks for the songs in an epic 13 hour recording session! They were such troopers.”<br><br>Corrinne was also thrilled to have Erig Rigler, who recorded the beautiful instrumental solos on the soundtracks to the movies ‘Titanic’ and ‘Braveheart’, play the Irish Whistle on two songs in the album.<br><br>“I’m really proud of the work we put in to make this album.” says Corrinne. “It took some time to put together, but it’s all been worth it.”<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=USex_wl9x0Q:eWn6ei2zO18:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=USex_wl9x0Q:eWn6ei2zO18:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/USex_wl9x0Q" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1506212012-03-22T19:43:00-04:002023-12-10T12:48:58-05:00Life Lessons I've learnt from my toddler[Written on January 28th 2011]<br><br>Life lessons I’ve learnt from my toddler.<br><br>My daughter Claire is now 21 months old (as of Jan.2011), and busily exploring her newfound skills of running, climbing, and her latest favourite, expressing her opinion, most often with the word ‘No!’. It’s a challenging time, trying to figure out how to best understand her, and yet set some boundaries with some gentle discipline. I’m continuously learning from her, and she from me. It’s been fascinating just being a full-time stay-at-home mother. It gives me the time to see the world through Claire’s eyes and to appreciate life a little bit more with each passing day.<br><br>Toddlers are such fascinating people. Everything is so new to them!<br>And in the course of taking care of Claire, I’ve discovered a couple of things that have given me some insight into life.<br><br>Lesson #1 : No Mess, No Success!<br><br>Claire has recently been wanting to feed herself, hold her own spoon and fork. Despite how many times I’ve told her to turn the spoon around so that it’s not upside down when she puts it in her mouth, she still persists, and as a result, the food spills all over her mouth, on her chair and on the table. It’s crazy the number of disposable wipes we use when we eat out! I know sooner or later, she’ll learn how to do it properly and the mess is just a part of the whole process of learning. But it’s so hard to have to just let her make a mess instead of taking over the feeding for her and continuing to feed her. I know at some point in time, I’ll just have to live with the mess and know that it’s the only way that she can learn to feed herself. <br><br>Same thing goes with learning to drink from a cup. Just the other day, she reached for a cup of Milo on the table and it toppled and spilt all over her brand new t-shirt. It’s hard, but as parents, there’s no other way. We just have to let our toddlers make a mess of the situation to learn.<br><br>I guess that applies to us 'Big Childen' as well. <br>Now, I understand how difficult it must be for older parents to see their children make a mess of their marriages or finances. I guess sometimes after all the advice and guidance given, there is no other choice but to stand aside so that children can learn from the mess they’ve made. It’s how we all grow…through the struggle.<br><br>Lesson #2 : The steeper the climb, the bigger the challenge, the better!<br><br>I don’t know what it is about staircases that fascinates Claire so much. She’ll spot a staircase from a distance and make a beeline for it.<br><br>And she loves climbing UP the staircase, doesn't matter how many steps there are, or how steep the staircase<br>is, or whether there is a railing for her to hold on to...she just runs towards it with pure abandonment and dizzy joy. She loves the challenge of it, even if she needs mummy’s hand to help her along.<br><br>I guess I’ve learnt that it doesn’t matter how high the goal is, we can get there one step at a time! With a little help of course. And we need to reach out and up for that helping hand.<br><br>Lesson #3 : You are stronger than you think you are!<br><br>I’ve also wondered many times, if maybe toddlers have the same abilities as worker ants to carry many times their body weight.<br>It’s fascinating how Claire is able to haul things I would deem too heavy for her to carry. She manages to push around heavy boxes of toys or to drag my heavy computer bag around the hallway. The more difficult, the better!<br><br>Just this morning, she carried a big box filled with heavy jigsaw puzzle pieces and gave it to grandma. How a little person like her,<br>weighing just about 11 kg manages to carry such heavy things...amazes me. <br><br>It’s given me some inspiration, some food for thought, just to watch her dealing with all these challenges. I’m often afraid of tackling a challenge that seems too much to handle, but perhaps, as Claire has shown me, just stubborn persistance and enthusiasm will get you over any obstacle and carrying any burden in life.<br><br><br>Lesson #4 : Happiness is looking out for the beauty in life.<br><br>Claire amazes us sometimes with her ability to spot butterflies, the moon, flowers, balloons, doggies, and everything<br>else that she loves...sometimes in the most non-descript places and situations. Many times, she has surprised us by<br>pointing to the faint outline of the moon in the mid-day sky, and seeing the image of the butterfly in some intricate wallpaper,<br>or picking out the image of a balloon in a small stamp-sized photo in a magazine while standing 2 feet away from said magazine!<br>And while she toddles along the sidewalk, she’ll stop to smell a rose or to kiss a flower.<br><br>Her enthusiasm and passion for the little things in life is infectious! <br>Now, I like to point out things that she might like, a little ladybug on a leaf, a cat sleeping under the car, a rainbow in the sky, blue taxis on the road, the MRT. <br><br>She’s also learning about colours now, and often mixes up the names, calling a purple crayon blue, or the green grass blue, etc.<br>I love the way she is naturally looking beyond the lines, beyond categories, because she hasn’t learned to classify everything in neat little boxes just yet.<br><br>It’s helped me to think about how I see the world. And it’s been so fascinating to see it anew through Claire’s eyes. To forget, for a while, the troubles of the world, to focus instead on the things that most people forget about in the course of their busy lives, things like a bird singing on a faraway tree, or a beautiful flower growing by the sidewalk. I guess it’s true, that the eyes are the windows to your soul. Happiness is looking out for the beauty in life. I guess that’s the secret of a happy soul, and a happy toddler.<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=0NoaB9tyETU:52-oojcqSTM:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=0NoaB9tyETU:52-oojcqSTM:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/0NoaB9tyETU" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504382011-01-21T20:19:00-05:002023-12-10T12:06:20-05:00Let the little ones come to me...do not take them away...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.prolife.com/images/FEET.gif"><img src="//www.prolife.com/images/FEET.gif" class="size_orig justify_left border_" alt="" style=" margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 286px; height: 225px;" /></a><br><br>Today is the 22nd of January 2011, and in the United States, it is the anniversary of Roe Vs Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the U.S in 1973.<br><br>So, I feel compelled to share this with you :<br><br><br><br><br>I was recently moved to tears while listening to a piece of music that my friend, composer John Bonaduce<br>had written. You can hear it here too<br><a href="http://www.shantigarh.com/audio/13_Kingdom_Of_Heaven_hifi.m3u">http://www.shantigarh.com/audio/13_Kingdom_Of_Heaven_hifi.m3u</a> <br>The words that really struck me within the piece were :<br><br><span style="font-style:italic;">"Let the little ones, come to me...<br>do not take them away<br>For it's to such as these that I have come<br>For the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs<br>Yes, the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs"</span> - Shantigarh Requiem for the Unborn.<br><br>Too many have been lost to this world. Too many tiny lives snuffed out before their laughter has had the chance to sweeten this world;<br>too soon before their cries of pain can be heard.<br><br>Just because they have no voice in this world, doesn't mean that they never existed...and too many people have made the mistake of thinking<br>that a precious life such as that of the smallest of us, in the warm, cozy womb of his or her mother...too many have made the mistake that<br>just sweeping that life away would be the be all, and end-all, that it is a mere inconvenience, to be gotten rid of...<br><br>It pains me, especially when I see the beautiful, sweet, smiling innocent face of my daughter, and imagine how many Claires have not been given<br>a similar chance at life. How many whose precious lives have ended too soon, without ever being acknowledged that they were even here.<br><br>Abortion is the greatest crime against our humanity.<br>It wounds not only the innocent victim,<br>but also that of the baby's mother, and the whole human family.<br>The blood spilt can never be put back to where it was meant to be.<br><br>And now as a mother, knowing the joy of the laughter, smiles and cuddles shared with my precious daughter, I am so saddened<br>that those who are lost to abortion<br>will never ever be able<br>to bring that joy to their parents lives (or adoptive parents)<br>and that this joy has been robbed from the world.<br><br>Why does God permit such evil?<br>It is us who bring the evil upon ourselves.<br>We have only ourselves to blame.<br>We are our brother's, our sister's keeper.<br>If we do not speak up for the least, the smallest, the most innocent,<br>the most silent of our brothers and sisters, who will?<br><br>Everyday, women all around the world go into abortion clinics<br>without fully understanding,<br>without truly knowing the evil that they partake in<br>And until they do,<br>we can only say, as Jesus did from the cross :<br>"Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."<br><br><span style="font-weight:bold;">Post-script</span> :<br><br>For those of you in L.A, there is an annual Mass for the Unborn at the Cathedral of Our Lady of The Angels.<br>This year, the mass will be on Saturday, the 22nd of January @ 6 p.m. You can read more about this at the link below.<br><a href="http://ojp.la-archdiocese.org/news/story.php?newsid=1212">http://ojp.la-archdiocese.org/news/story.php?newsid=1212</a><br><br>Here is the website where you can listen to and purchase sheet music for the beautiful piece 'Kingdom of Heaven', a piece which moved me to tears.<br>Scroll down the song list till you see 'Kingdom of Heaven' and you can listen to the whole song by clicking on the red words 'MP3 play whole song'<br><a href="http://www.shantigarh.com/music.html">http://www.shantigarh.com/music.html</a><br><br>The NYtimes recently featured "Behind the Scenes : Picturing Fetal Remains" in their photography blog 'LENS'.<br>It is a thought provoking piece of photojournalism, and one done with sensitivity. I encourage you to read it, and check out the link on baby Malachi.<br><a href="http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/behind-19/">http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/behind-19/</a><br><br>Another interesting story on how a 21-week old baby reaches from the womb to grasp the hand of his surgeon, as told by the photographer who captured the moment on film :<br><a href="http://www.michaelclancy.com/story.html">http://www.michaelclancy.com/story.html</a><br><br><span style="font-style:italic;">How you can make a difference</span>....pray, that the truth will prevail and open hearts to choose life and love. Share the truth, so that those who perish do not do so in vain, and those who can be saved will be saved. Here's a good website for some more information and resources<br><a href="http://www.priestsforlife.org/">http://www.priestsforlife.org/</a><br><br><span style="font-style:italic;">Here's a great book I read</span><br>The Unaborted Socrates : A Dramatic Debate on the issues surrounding Abortion by Peter Kreeft<br><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Unaborted-Socrates-Dramatic-Surrounding-Abortion/dp/0877848106">http://www.amazon.com/Unaborted-Socrates-Dramatic-Surrounding-Abortion/dp/0877848106</a><br>Is abortion a woman's right? When does human life begin? Should we legislate morality? What would happen if the Socrates of old suddenly appeared in modern Athens? Peter Kreeft imagines the dialog that might ensue with three worthy opponents--a doctor, a philosopher and a psychologist--about the arguments surrounding abortion. Kreeft uses Socratic technique to strip away the emotional issues and get to the heart of the rational objections to abortion. Logic joins humor as Socrates challenges the standard rhetoric and passion of the contemporary debate.<br><br><span style="font-style:italic;">For those who have been wounded by the scourge of abortion, here are some resources to help:</span><br><br><span style="font-weight:bold;">Rachel's Vineyard</span> <a href="http://www.rachelsvineyard.org/index.htm">http://www.rachelsvineyard.org/index.htm</a><br>Rachel's Vineyard is a safe place to renew, rebuild and redeem hearts broken by abortion. Weekend retreats offer you a supportive, confidential and non-judgmental environment where women and men can express, release and reconcile painful post-abortive emotions to begin the process of restoration, renewal and healing.<br><br><span style="font-weight:bold;">Silent No More Awareness Campaign</span> <a href="http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/about/">http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/about/</a><br>Many women and men are realizing the abortions they were involved in years ago are the source of the physical and emotional problems they have today. The Campaign gives them a forum to help others by sharing the painful consequences of abortion. These voices of experience need to be heard so others can learn about the help that is available. They also want people who think abortion is a good solution for someone facing an unplanned pregnancy to understand the real long-term consequences their friend or loved one is likely to face in the future.<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=jdiTnzWAtsg:6btzANWk3IU:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=jdiTnzWAtsg:6btzANWk3IU:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/jdiTnzWAtsg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/4259852008-07-31T18:15:00-04:002023-12-10T11:46:06-05:00France - Visiting the hometown of St. Therese of Lisieux<strong>Recount of a trip taken on 10th Feb. 2008 to Lisieux, France </strong><br><br><br>Woke up a little later than planned because Kavin's alarm clock was set to 8.15 PM instead of AM. Ah well, we still managed to get to Les Buissonets (St. Thérése's childhood home) on time around 10 a.m <br><br><a title="DSC07936 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721920852/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3294/2721920852_07a80f097b.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07936" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>A senior lady with friendly grandmother glasses, a kind smile and short hair opened the door. We were the first visitors there that day. Her badge said 'Sister Vivienne' and after a bit of us trying to understand her French and her trying to understand our English, we realised that she was telling us to wait for the pre-recorded audio guide/cassette to start us on our tour through the house. We stood in the living room of St. Thérése's childhood home. In front of us, the fireplace where would look forward to filled stockings on Christmas. Also on the wall in the room was a painting of Les Buissonnets by Thérése's older sister Celine and behind a plastic, see-through barrier was the dining room where the family had their meals. I could almost picture the kids, excited on Christmas day, and the family sitting down to dinner. <br><br><a title="DSC07940 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721921326/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3004/2721921326_632f7cf5cb.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07940" height="375" width="500" /></a> <br><br>Next, we went upstairs. There on a wall, was a picture of St. Thérése's parents and on the opposite wall, on a chest of drawers, was a copy of the statue of Mary that overlooked Thérése as she lay sick in bed. <br><br><a title="DSC07942 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721095375/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3236/2721095375_bb7def88d5.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07942" height="375" width="500" /></a> <br><br>We were then ushered into a 3rd room which displayed an exhibition of Thérése's belongings, her first communion dress, another dress she wore for special occasions, her toys, her tea-set, her mini- stove toy kitchen with its small pots and pans, her puzzle bricks, books, the cross of Christ which she prayed in front of for the criminal Pendanzi (?) I wish I'd checked to see if her rosary was there. There was also a cage there with a toy bird and perhaps, a music, accordion-like keyboard somewhere, I think. Somehow those two items caught my eye, as I wondered if Thérése sang, or liked music. I liked the mini-stove set too. Very cute. Can imagine her playing that with her sisters. <br><br>Therese's play stove <a title="DSC07953 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721922546/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3105/2721922546_abf3e7f95d.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07953" height="375" width="500" /></a> <br><br>Therese's first holy communion dress <a title="DSC07957 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721096773/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3047/2721096773_d4fb73b239.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07957" height="500" width="375" /></a> <br><br>There was also a bookshop in the same room, but most of the books were in French. So after Les Buissonnets, we made our way to St. Pierre Cathedral, or rather, in English, St. Peter's Cathedral for the 11 a.m mass. When we got there, the bells were already ringing away in the bell tower, calling people to mass. <br><br><a title="IMG_6576 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721941746/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3193/2721941746_f899e3c75f.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6576" height="500" width="333" /></a> <br><br>It was nice to attend mass at the same parish as St. Thérése had attended as a child, with her family and her dad. The parishioners were mostly from the area, and there were many kids and families in the congregation. So despite the frigid conditions in the church, there was the warmth there of something familiar that the parishioners, in their community parish brought with them. <br><br><a title="IMG_6582 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721942396/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3108/2721942396_f1ebffce52.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6582" height="500" width="333" /></a> <br><br>Good thing I had checked up on the readings for the day beforehand, since everything was being read in French. The readings of the day were about Adam and Eve's fall and the gospel was about Jesus's temptation by Satan in the desert. Where Adam and Eve failed to resist temptation and thus fell, Jesus resisted temptation and was obedient to His Father's will. <br><br>After mass, we quickly walked around, following a leaflet that listed the various places to see within the church that related to St. Thérése's life. Places like the wooden confessional where Thérése received the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the marble altar that St. Thérése's father had donated to the church. He was a watchmaker and a jeweller, and was presumably quite well-to-do. <br><br>Confessional box where Therese made her first confession. <a title="IMG_6587 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721942860/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3193/2721942860_7c687232bd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6587" height="500" width="333" /></a> <br><br>We also saw the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary where Thérése attended mass during the week. It had a lovely altar with Our Lady’s image and the Blessed Sacrament was present within the tabernacle. We also saw the small chapel that Thérése’s family had rented for Sunday mass and a statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel that Thérése’s sister Pauline used to pray in front of, seeking Mary’s help in discerning her vocation. the small chapel that Thérése’s family had rented for Sunday mass<br><br><a title="DSC07978 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721098415/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3049/2721098415_3e3a413940.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07978" height="375" width="500" /></a> <br><br>a statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel that Thérése’s sister Pauline used to pray in front of <br><a title="IMG_6620 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721945778/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3105/2721945778_c2aebac4a2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6620" height="500" width="333" /></a> <br><br>After this, we headed across the street to have lunch at Le Patio, where I had a lamb dish and Kavin had an omellette, a sandwich and a cup of coffee. The coffee tasted good. Then we headed to the Basilica of St. Therese. <br><br>It was a beautiful day, clear blue skies. We went first to the crypt. It had beautiful mosaic tiles all over the ceiling with images from Therese’s life, from her childhood to her death. There were also little chapels dedicated to her favourite saints and at the very front of the crypt, above the altar, was a statue of St. Therese above the tabernacle. Off to one side, the Child Jesus smiled over a side altar. <br><br>The basilique <br><a title="IMG_6633 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721946928/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3043/2721946928_69e3becee2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6633" height="333" width="500" /></a> <br><br>The crypt <br><a title="IMG_6639 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721947508/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3277/2721947508_97fdb4da90.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6639" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>Mosaic of St. Therese at the main crypt altar <br><a title="DSC08010 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721101999/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3049/2721101999_5d826641b1.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC08010" height="375" width="500" /></a> <br><br>Mosaic commemorating Therese's entrance to Carmel. <br><a title="IMG_6640 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721121535/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3237/2721121535_daebf67b80.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6640" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>Altar with the child Jesus above the tabernacle. <br><a title="DSC08012 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721928294/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3060/2721928294_f853a535f7.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC08012" height="500" width="375" /></a> <br><br>At the back of the church, an exhibit had been laid out, with pictures from Therese’s life in Carmel (unfortunately, Carmel convent was closed for renovations and we could see the convent where she had spent most of her time as a nun) and pictures of her family. There was even a photo there where Therese had dressed herself as St. Joan of Arc! I thought that was so cute, the future saint dressed as a saint that she herself had admired. A future saint, dressed as a saint, a warrior-in-making in her own way. I wonder if there is a section in her book where she talks about dressing up as Joan of Arc. I think she does. <br><br>St. Therese dressed as St. Joan of Arc<br><a title="DSC07990 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721099621/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3187/2721099621_a64fdf60bd_m.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07990" height="240" width="180" /></a><br><br>Looking at her family tree, it was also interesting to note that her sisters had lived quite long lives as opposed to Therese’s 24 years. Kavin pointed out that two of her sisters had lived to see both world wars. We went upstairs after this to the basilique itself. It’s a huge and very beautiful church. Orange-red mosaic tiles all over added a warmth, a passion, an almost child-like love of colour within the church. It’s the most colourful church I’ve seen in France, apart from the Notre Dame de Fourvière in Lyon. The dome was so big, Kavin was pretty awe-struck too. The stained glass windows had some words on them. I assume they were St. Therese’s words. On the arc of the dome, there were mosaics of flowers and also a mosaic featuring a single rose. I loved the main altar, showing Our Lady on the left and Therese on the right, the resurrected Christ in the middle and the little lambs (so cute) below. <br><br>The huge dome of the basilica, from within. <br><a title="IMG_6658 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2722000052/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3146/2722000052_7f67eeb0e9.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6658" height="333" width="500" /></a> <br><br>Top of the dome, showing St. Therese being receiving her just reward <br><a title="IMG_6665 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2722000746/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3254/2722000746_40c7b1960b.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6665" height="333" width="500" /></a> <br><br>Mosaic at the front of the main altar. <br><a title="DSC08053 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721932758/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3251/2721932758_daa7cbdc51.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC08053" height="375" width="500" /></a> <br><br>View of the back of the church. <br><a title="DSC08054 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721106797/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3128/2721106797_651f90efb8.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC08054" height="375" width="500" /></a> <br><br>But the best part of the church was the right main chapel, where a reliquary held the bones of St. Therese’s right arm, the arm with which she wrote her ‘Story Of A Soul’. It was moving to see these right arm bones of St. Therese, for here, laid the physical relics of the saint I’ve been so inspired by. Here lay the physical framework and strength from which she wrote her story. Here was the physical part of her that she had asked Mary to guide, for, in her own words, “Before taking my pen in hand, I knelt before the statue of Mary and I begged her to guide my hand so that I might not write a single line that would not be pleasing to her.”. This was the part of her, offered up to God, that now lay in this reliquary. <br><br>The side chapel<br><a title="IMG_6669 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2722001124/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3254/2722001124_738969a5dd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6669" height="333" width="500" /></a> <br><br>St. Therese's right arm bone lays in the reliquary<br><a title="IMG_6677 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2722001820/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3154/2722001820_c720d6dac8.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6677" height="333" width="500" /></a> <br><br><a title="DSC08039 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721104907/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3278/2721104907_cf64210a28.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC08039" height="500" width="375" /></a> <br><br>I look upon St. Therese as an older sister of sorts, as a role model. God used her through her story, her words, her simple loving ways and her wisdom. This humble Therese, who in life, never knew the recognition that came with the spread of her story after her death, was not concerned with fame or fortune. All she wanted to do was to love Him as best as she could and to get to Heaven where she hoped she would be able to spend her time in Heaven doing good on earth. She wanted to quench the Lord’s thirst for souls. This thread of humility, of being unrecognized here on earth, seems to be a common thread in the saints I’ve come across on this trip to France, for St. Catherine Laboure was also unknown and kept Our Lady’s visits to her a secret for so many years. <br><br>Anyway, I knelt in front of the reliquary and asked the saint’s help in my own writing, my music and ministry. I hope that she will guide me to writing, singing and making music that pleases Him. I hope to do with my left arm and hand what she did with her right, ie. to always write what is pleasing to Him, no more, no less. <br><br>Kavin and I walked outside the basilica after this and saw the place behind the church where Therese’s parents were buried. Above their tombstones was a statue of St. Therese and behind her stood the majestic church named for her. God truly sought to raise his little flower. What a wonderful testimony to His providence, that He had chosen to honour his little saint with a church to her name and to make her a tree of comfort for all who learn about her ‘little way’. The littlest, the least has truly been raised up high. The speed at which she attained sainthood seems unmatched. Even St. Joan of Arc, matyred in the 1400’s was only declared a saint 500 years after her death. In contrast, St. Therese was declared a saint less than 50 years after her death. <br><br>After the visit to the Basilica, we drove back towards Paris, with the intention to stop by at Versailles along the way. The little Opel Corsa we had rented packed quite a punch, remaining steady on the road even at 150 km/hr. Pretty cool car. <br><br>So we got to Versailles a little after 5 p.m Kavin was excited to see the buildings that he had initially seen ‘virtually’ in his computer game. We took some photos in the huge Jardins (gardens) and in front of the buildings, then headed back to Paris, returning the car at the Hertz carpark on Rue du Maine, then walking back to check into a new room at the Hotel Des Academy des Arts. <br><br>At Versailles <br><a title="DSC08098 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721111311/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3255/2721111311_34b2177da1.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC08098" height="375" width="500" /></a> <br><br>Kavin tries to be a tree at the Jardin. <br><a title="DSC08110 by Corrinne May, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2721938568/"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3164/2721938568_76ee145556.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC08110" height="375" width="500" /></a> <br><br>Then we headed to Sapporo for ramen. Mmmmmm… Along the way, we heard some wonderful music from a busker in the subway who was playing his violin. Absolutely gorgeous.<br>I've posted a short video clip here :<br><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-2c34758b5ee332d5" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/get_player">
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<br><br>More photos of Lisieux are <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/sets/72157606481923027/">here</a><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=9Ux15Lzt5o8:gwyJAxgTwgM:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=9Ux15Lzt5o8:gwyJAxgTwgM:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/9Ux15Lzt5o8" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504392008-07-16T08:08:00-04:002023-12-10T12:57:06-05:00France - Mass at Mont Saint Michel / Setting off for Lisieux<span style="font-weight:bold;">Recount of France vacation taken on </span><br><span style="font-weight:bold;">Saturday 9th February 2008.<br><br>Mont St Michel, 9.20 a.m</span><br><br>My fingers are so cold I can hardly write. Went<br>for Laudes just now in the Abbey. It was beautiful.<br>Now sitting at a cafe along the street, having a tiny<br>cup of decafeine. Tastes good. I wanted to order the Verveine <br>Tea but they were out of it. <br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH6Hcbmm7jI/AAAAAAAAAvE/YDkaCKGD_M0/s1600-h/DSC07868.JPG"><img src="//bp3.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH6Hcbmm7jI/AAAAAAAAAvE/YDkaCKGD_M0/s400/DSC07868.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223761540312133170" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br>Woke up at 7.15 a.m<br>Was sleepy coz we slept around 2 a.m. But<br>it was so lovely to walk around Mont St Michel<br>in the briskness of the early morning. Pretty mystical<br>to walk along the ramparts and up the many flights of<br>stairs, in the purple-blue, pink light of dawn, up towards the<br>abbey's entrance.<br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH6Hd2BKgwI/AAAAAAAAAvU/WydpB9MD7nU/s1600-h/DSC07801.JPG"><img src="//bp1.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH6Hd2BKgwI/AAAAAAAAAvU/WydpB9MD7nU/s400/DSC07801.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223761564582707970" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH6HhwXiUkI/AAAAAAAAAvc/CDgcGskbAgI/s1600-h/DSC07806.JPG"><img src="//bp1.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH6HhwXiUkI/AAAAAAAAAvc/CDgcGskbAgI/s400/DSC07806.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223761631785407042" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH6Hc2tLdLI/AAAAAAAAAvM/8gYHwUWs0bc/s1600-h/DSC07796.JPG"><img src="//bp2.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH6Hc2tLdLI/AAAAAAAAAvM/8gYHwUWs0bc/s400/DSC07796.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223761547587450034" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br>For a thousand years, pilgrims have probably huffed<br>and puffed and walked up the many stairs, up the rock,<br>to pray. A beautiful metaphor for our faith journey,<br>the uphill, winding road.<br><br>I was alone, taking in the gradual pinking of the sky,<br>the waves gently lapping against the foot of this rock. <br>Taking pictures as I walked along, with my guardian<br>angel rushing me on, so that I would not be late<br>for Laudes.<br><br>Walking up the stairs towards the abbey door, I wondered<br>if I was at the right place. There was no one else there,<br>just me, awaiting the huge abbey doors to be opened, to<br>be let in for the 8 a.m Laudes.<br><br>Just as I was thinking this, the 'di-di-di' og an electronic <br>door alarm being switched off could be heard. Ah... modernity<br>and technology in the midst of the ancient. Pretty cool.<br><br>The door within a door creaked open and the young man<br>within ushered me in. I guess he was one of the novices<br>of the monastery.<br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7IbqXtCcI/AAAAAAAAAwc/8JkMpR0RvEw/s1600-h/DSC07810.JPG"><img src="//bp3.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7IbqXtCcI/AAAAAAAAAwc/8JkMpR0RvEw/s400/DSC07810.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223832995352086978" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br>We both waited a couple more minutes for others perhaps<br>to show, but as the minutes wore on, it became apparent<br>that I would be the only one there from outside<br>the abbey to join the monks within the abbey at Laudes.<br><br>We made our way past the nave of the main church where <br>a monk was pulling on a long rope, ringing the baritone,<br>resonant bells up in the tower that signalled a call<br>to prayer. In that dimly lit church and altar, it was<br>awe-inspiring and mystically beautiful to see history<br>come alive before my eyes...to see the continuity of<br>this way of life of the monks, the tolling of the bell<br>everyday at this hour, as it has been done for close to thousand years.<br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7Rsj1aYQI/AAAAAAAAAx0/CffICnlbHE0/s1600-h/monk-rop-edit.JPG"><img src="//bp0.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7Rsj1aYQI/AAAAAAAAAx0/CffICnlbHE0/s400/monk-rop-edit.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223843181260071170" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br>We walked towards the left of the church and down a small<br>stairwell, into a small chapel, simple, round, shaped<br>like the cup of a hand. There in the dim light, I could<br>make out the figures of 4 priests and 4 nuns, prostrate<br>in silent prayer.<br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7Ib8yB9OI/AAAAAAAAAwk/nWknrKXVyck/s1600-h/DSC07818.JPG"><img src="//bp0.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7Ib8yB9OI/AAAAAAAAAwk/nWknrKXVyck/s400/DSC07818.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223833000294348002" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br>I sat on a bench along with 3 others, lay people, ordinarily<br>clothed like me. After a few minutes, the lights<br>were brighted and the monks and nuns began to sing.<br><br>It was hauntingly beautiful to hear the soft, smooth<br>harmonious blending of the voices in 4 part harmonies,<br>singing morning praises to God as the light slowly streamed<br>in the small rectangular windows behind the<br>small tabernacle from the brightening sky outside.<br><br>Their voices rose and fell and blended as they sang<br>Psalm 3 and Psalm 26, the canticle of Zachary.<br>I tried to sing and follow as best as I could, <br>which was not much, since I knew neither the language<br>nor the melody, but I asked the Holy Spirit<br>to help me 'know' in the depths of my spirit and soul,<br>to hear and discern the Lord's voice in this foreign tongue.<br><br><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/KhYHuQDMOes&hl=en&fs=1">
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<embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/KhYHuQDMOes&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br><br><br>To think that for a thousand years, men and women have<br>praised God in that little chapel. Amazing...<br><br>Afterwards, I spoke a bit with the brother who had<br>opened the door for me to the Abbey. I was shown the<br>'balcony' of the abbey, where we could see<br>the whole lay of the land below. The water, slowly sifting<br>in, the grapefruit pink sky merging to blue...it was<br>a gorgeous view if only for a few minutes.<br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7IcrsKcVI/AAAAAAAAAws/rcgXN7EkgiA/s1600-h/DSC07827.JPG"><img src="//bp0.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7IcrsKcVI/AAAAAAAAAws/rcgXN7EkgiA/s400/DSC07827.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223833012886204754" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7IcwqH1YI/AAAAAAAAAw0/7uDAevK-GNE/s1600-h/DSC07828.JPG"><img src="//bp2.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7IcwqH1YI/AAAAAAAAAw0/7uDAevK-GNE/s400/DSC07828.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223833014219822466" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br>'See you at noon for Mass!' I told him, as he smiled and soon<br>the abbey doors were once again closed. And I wandered<br>along till I found this cafe. Just finished off<br>a beurre/sucre (butter and sugar) crepe and that<br>decaffeine. Now I'm ready to go along on my way.<br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7NE0FZvAI/AAAAAAAAAxE/xVySv6VvDOU/s1600-h/DSC07863.JPG"><img src="//bp0.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7NE0FZvAI/AAAAAAAAAxE/xVySv6VvDOU/s400/DSC07863.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223838100380826626" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br>==================<br><br>I made my way back to the hotel and woke Kavin up.<br>I had just discovered that there would be a tour of the<br>abbey given in English at 11 a.m, so we didn't have much<br>time to spare.<br><br>The tour was given by a middle-aged, bespectacled<br>French lady who had the tendency to 'shush' groups<br>of tourists of schoolkids passing by who were talking<br>too loudly for her comfort. She definitely had a schoolteacher<br>inclination :) There were also some tourists from England who<br>were on the same tour as us <br><br>After the tour, we headed back to the front of the Abbey,<br>at a gate, the meeting spot for anyone who wanted to attend<br>mass at 12.15 p.m. A sweet-faced nun, one of those who had<br>sung at Laudes in the morning, was there at the gate.<br><br>We said 'hi' to her and told her we were going for<br>mass. She recognised me from the morning Laudes, <br>gave us stickers, green round ones which stated <br>'Participants of mass' and told me, with hand signals<br>and halting English, that mass would be at the same<br>place as Laudes had been. She also playfully chided<br>Kavin for not waking up on time for Laudes that morning<br>(Kavin had mentioned that he'd been sleeping). So cute,<br>she was even playfully wagging her finger at him as she chided him.<br><br>So Kavin and I made our downstairs to the little chapel.<br>There were some extra benches placed there to accomodate <br>the 20 people who were sitting down in silence.<br><br>We sat on the bench closest to the altar and sat in<br>silence. I recognised the man sitting next to us<br>as he had also been there in the morning for Laudes<br>and we introduced ourselves. Gäita was his name<br>and he was there on a retreat.<br><br>Mass soon began and it was filled with songs sung in 4 part<br>harmony; songs that harkened to a past, a heritage<br>of music passed down from generation to generation of<br>religious brothers and sisters.<br><br>The acoustic warmth and the echo reverberating <br>in that small chapel was heartwarming.<br><br>I did not understand a word as everything was sung<br>and spoke in French and I found myself wishing that<br>I had read the readings for the day so that I could<br>understand the gospel being proclaimed in French.<br>Still, I asked the holy spirit to speak to my soul,<br>for even if my brain could not understand the words,<br>the spirit could speak to my soul in a voice of<br>meaning that transcends language and it could plant<br>a seed of God's word there; a seed that would<br>germinate and flower in His time.<br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7NEdkmYjI/AAAAAAAAAw8/ZdaZezcAERM/s1600-h/DSC07898.JPG"><img src="//bp3.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7NEdkmYjI/AAAAAAAAAw8/ZdaZezcAERM/s400/DSC07898.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223838094337663538" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7NFKwTP2I/AAAAAAAAAxM/p_J-ShZnHwc/s1600-h/IMG_6426.JPG"><img src="//bp3.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7NFKwTP2I/AAAAAAAAAxM/p_J-ShZnHwc/s400/IMG_6426.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223838106466336610" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br><br>The liturgy of the Eucharist was beautifully<br>celebrated. The celebrant beheld Christ's body<br>and blood with such tenderness. <br>After the consecration, the great Amen and<br>during the Agnus Dei, he distributed the Eucharist<br>to the nuns and monks there, who lined up on both<br>sides of the altar, hands cupped to receive His body.<br><br>I was so moved to see their faces as they received<br>Him in their hands, as they beheld His body in their<br>cupped hands...faces full of tenderness and love,<br>praise and quiet contemplation as they beheld their<br>God. I especially lingered on the face of the sister,<br>the sweet, pretty one who had met us at the gate<br>earlier. There was such sweetness in her face, such <br>tenderness and love.<br><br>The celebrant had a very fatherly approach too and<br>he gestured in French that those who couldn't receive<br>communion could come up for a blessing. Kavin went up<br>for a blessing and really liked the way that the priest<br>took his time to specially bless each and every one.<br><br>I was pretty much moved to tears after partaking of <br>His body and drinking His sweet blood, as I sat<br>there on the bench, looking at the golden chalice that<br>held His precious blood, getting teary thinking about<br>his great sacrifice out of love for me and for my<br>breathren. It was a beautiful few minutes, a moment<br>of grace given by Him.<br><br>After mass, Gäita gave me the drawing that he'd been <br>drawing during part of the mass. I'd been wondering<br>why he'd been doodling, thinking that he was bored...<br>and here he was giving me his drawing. It showed a dragon<br>being slain by St. Michael and in the background was<br>Mont St Michel, and at the bottom right, he'd drawn<br>a girl in spiritual joy. He smiled and told me that <br>I was the girl he had depicted in his drawing.<br>I was very moved.<br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH-V_mKiOyI/AAAAAAAAAx8/7rAJYRG7IHY/s1600-h/DSC08851.jpg"><img src="//bp1.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH-V_mKiOyI/AAAAAAAAAx8/7rAJYRG7IHY/s400/DSC08851.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224059012582095650" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7NFgIemrI/AAAAAAAAAxU/2kfoV8Cq6xg/s1600-h/IMG_6428.JPG"><img src="//bp0.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7NFgIemrI/AAAAAAAAAxU/2kfoV8Cq6xg/s400/IMG_6428.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223838112204888754" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br>After mass, Kavin and I went back to Auberge St. Piere's<br>restaurant. This time, both of us had the lamb dish.<br>Mmmmm....:)<br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7QUu0gAMI/AAAAAAAAAxc/Z5s1ruOjaGY/s1600-h/DSC07914.JPG"><img src="//bp2.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7QUu0gAMI/AAAAAAAAAxc/Z5s1ruOjaGY/s400/DSC07914.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223841672380547266" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7QU3eRgPI/AAAAAAAAAxk/D9UiCwwTguU/s1600-h/DSC07935.JPG"><img src="//bp0.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH7QU3eRgPI/AAAAAAAAAxk/D9UiCwwTguU/s400/DSC07935.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223841674703241458" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br><br>Following this, we drove to Lisieux. It took us about<br>2 hours to reach Lisieux from Mont St Michel.<br>After checking in to the Campanile hotel, we rested <br>for a while before heading out for dinner at a crepe<br>restaurant we'd googled. It was a nice cosy restaurant<br>run by a French guy and his Vietnamese wife.<br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH-abhKrAbI/AAAAAAAAAyE/qm5frep92wg/s1600-h/IMG_6551.JPG"><img src="//bp2.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH-abhKrAbI/AAAAAAAAAyE/qm5frep92wg/s400/IMG_6551.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224063890323341746" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br>I had the Bolognese crepe and Kavin had the ceylon<br>crepe (with chicken and curry). They were both good.<br>After this, we had dessert crepes. Sucre-beurre with <br>a scoop of Pear sorbet for me and crepe with a scoop<br>of coffee ice-cream for Kavin.<br><br>Here's a link to more <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/sets/72157606222650662/">pics taken at Mont Saint Michel</a>.<br>Too many to post here.<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=MvhKIraviJo:msfz5Tdnx9c:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=MvhKIraviJo:msfz5Tdnx9c:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/MvhKIraviJo" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504402008-07-16T06:45:00-04:002023-12-10T14:00:11-05:00France - Normandy Beach / Mont Saint Michel<span style="font-weight:bold;">[Recount of a visit to Normandy Beach and Mont Saint Michel taken on<br>Friday 8th February 2008]</span><br><br>We checked out of our rooms around 11 a.m and got to Hertz<br>taking some sandwiches we’d bought along the way with us<br>in the car for lunch. Then we were off. Thank goodness for<br>the GPS system that we had rented along with the car. With<br>the windy roads in Paris and all the unfamiliar road names<br>in French, we would have been stuck without a clue as to<br>where to go without the GPS system.<br><br>The car we rented was a cute, black Opel Corsa. It was a manual<br>car, and I loved the fact that the gears shifted pretty smoothly.<br>And being small, I could navigate it pretty easily through the traffic.<br>Surprisingly, Parisian traffic wasn’t as bad as I thought it would<br>be. Either that, or with my experience driving in Singapore,<br>and in Los Angeles, driving in Paris was a breeze.<br><br>So we headed for the Normandy beaches that the Allied troops<br>had landed at on D-Day 1944. Kavin was really looking forward<br>to seeing history up close. After driving for a couple of hours, <br>along some winding roads passing through farmlands and small<br>towns and getting a little off-course at one point in time,<br>we finally reached the American War Memorial near Omaha<br>beach at 3.45 p.m<br><br>Upon reaching the war memorial, we watched a short movie entitled<br>‘Letters’, featuring the stories of the young men who had written letters home to their loved ones. <br>It was so sad to hear the words written by<br>these young men, and then to see their gravestones as the frames<br>told their stories and visually ended with a picture of their graves.<br>It was poignant how young these men, were killed at the peak<br>of their young lives.<br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH48CI5V3cI/AAAAAAAAAuE/RJ2lr4T5qsc/s1600-h/IMG_6193.JPG"><img src="//bp1.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH48CI5V3cI/AAAAAAAAAuE/RJ2lr4T5qsc/s400/IMG_6193.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223678625241750978" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br>We walked later around the cemetery. Crosses stretched out<br>over the area, covering every bit of green. Over 10,000 lives lost.<br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH48CVjykxI/AAAAAAAAAuM/-jUEj1sgXEo/s1600-h/IMG_6211.JPG"><img src="//bp3.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH48CVjykxI/AAAAAAAAAuM/-jUEj1sgXEo/s400/IMG_6211.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223678628641018642" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br>We took a walk down the pathway to the beach. With the beauty<br>of the sunset fast approaching, the waves rushing over the orange-brown sands and a couple of dogs playing along the coast lines, and some pretty houses dotting the hills just above, it was hard to imagine that barely 60 years ago, this same beach was the scene of much bloodshed, pain and screams of young men being massacred, the roar of guns and grenades exploding, reverberating around this now tranquil place….I could almost hear the whispers of those who died pleading, “Remember us, so that our deaths are not in vain.”<br><br>Hopefully, time will not erase the memory of the courage these men<br>showed in the face of war and death, in helping to save strangers that they had never met, thousands of miles away from home.<br><br>We made our way to Point Du Hoc after this. The place was pockmarked with huge craters, covered in green grass and weeds. I initially wondered if nature’s erosions had caused the craters, but realized later that they<br>were probably the result of mortars, and bombs exploding during WWII,eating the land away.<br><br>Nothing except decrepit barracks and twisted fragments of concrete, rock and steel remained. Kavin explained<br>that this was where allied troops had scaled a steep cliff face in order<br>to take out German artillery guns.<br><br>Nature had slowly but surely reclaimed her land, covering the holes<br>Man had made with a carpet of green. The Pointe-Du-Hoc monument<br>itself stood close to the edge of the cliff, cordoned off, because the land on which it stood was in danger of eroding away and collapsing.<br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH48CqI3cLI/AAAAAAAAAuU/Z53M08C73EY/s1600-h/IMG_6251.JPG"><img src="//bp1.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH48CqI3cLI/AAAAAAAAAuU/Z53M08C73EY/s400/IMG_6251.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223678634165235890" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/sets/72157606224369494/">Some more pictures of Normandy and the American War Memorial can be seen here.</a><br><br>Kavin and I walked back to the car as dusk fell, and continued<br>our journey towards Mont St Michel.<br><br>It appeared in the distance, in the dark, bathed in soft light,<br>like something out of a dream, looking otherworldly, “Magical”<br>as Kavin described it, and as we drove closer, Mont St Michel<br>got a little larger in view, till at last we were at the edge of the<br>causeway that would take us to the rocky outcrop.<br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH48Cw_uYgI/AAAAAAAAAuc/QLIS-nT6DJg/s1600-h/IMG_6287.JPG"><img src="//bp1.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH48Cw_uYgI/AAAAAAAAAuc/QLIS-nT6DJg/s400/IMG_6287.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223678636005941762" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br>I was glad that we had chosen to stay in a hotel on the Mont itself<br>instead of one on the mainland. It seemed a pity for the people who<br>stayed in one of the many hotels on the mainland to be so close,<br>yet so far away from the Mont.<br><br>Anyway, we drove along the causeway, with only our headlights<br>to guide the way on the darkened road. We wound down the windows,<br>listening to the water’s ebb and flow and the crunch of the gravel<br>beneath the car tires. The cold wind played hide and seek with our<br>hair. <br><br>Water surrounded us on both sides of the road and it truly was magical driving towards the abbey on the causeway.<br>It seemed as if we were floating upon the heavens, water around us, <br>and the stars twinkling above, and before us, the majestic Mont Saint Michel.<br><br>It looked like some faraway heavenly castle, perched upon that rock.<br>Truly an architectural marvel.<br><br>We pulled up to the carpark area and because we were staying<br>on the Mont itself, we had access to the parking lot that was closest<br>to the Mont and specially reserved for hotel guests. And parking<br>was free. That’s always good.<br><br>We got out of the car. It was chilly and windy, but we were<br>awed by what we saw before us. The sound of waves could be heard<br>gently crashing around us, as the tide rose higher and higher and flowed in across the salt marshes and plains that surrounded Mont Saint Michel.<br><br>As we made our way into the Mont itself, we walked along a wooden<br>plank built along the side of the Mont and passed by some Japanese <br>tourists walking in the opposite direction, oohing and aahing at the<br>rising tide which was washing over and covering what looked to<br>be a carpark. <br><br>Kavin and I walked along the passageway and passed by La Mere Poulard on our left, the restaurant that is famous for its omelete. But at 30 Euros an omelette, I felt it was an exorbitant price to pay for a couple of eggs whipped up. <br><br>It was about 8.40 p.m by this time, and we were worried that there<br>would be nowhere to eat dinner. Fortunately, the restaurant linked<br>to our hotel opened late, so after checking into the Auberge St. Pierre,<br>we had dinner at the restaurant around 9.10 p.m. What luck<br>that it was also the same restaurant mentioned in the guidebook,<br>for it’s salt-marsh lamb dishes. The lamb around Mont St Michel<br>is prized because it feeds on the salt-marshes around the Mont,<br>thus, it is said to have a wonderful flavour. Pré-Salé lamb. <br>Or in French, L’Agneau pré-salé<br><br>I ordered the Carre d’Agneau which was spectacular. It<br>was a small rack of lamb that had been roasted with thyme and rosemary.<br>It was the best lamb I’d ever tasted. Not gamey at all in flavour.<br>The lamb was tender and moist with a robust, rich flavour. Mmmm.<br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH4_mZTmDuI/AAAAAAAAAuk/Gygx-y3_Rng/s1600-h/IMG_6305.JPG"><img src="//bp3.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH4_mZTmDuI/AAAAAAAAAuk/Gygx-y3_Rng/s400/IMG_6305.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223682546657005282" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br>We tried a fluffy omelette at half the price.<br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH4_m8RYZBI/AAAAAAAAAus/WJK_Z3r89I8/s1600-h/IMG_6306.JPG"><img src="//bp3.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH4_m8RYZBI/AAAAAAAAAus/WJK_Z3r89I8/s400/IMG_6306.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223682556042961938" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br>Kavin ordered a chicken dish. The mussels and fries dish that I’d<br>seen some other patrons order also looked great.<br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH4_nPQnziI/AAAAAAAAAu0/fzAMKrnjvLU/s1600-h/IMG_6309.JPG"><img src="//bp3.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH4_nPQnziI/AAAAAAAAAu0/fzAMKrnjvLU/s400/IMG_6309.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223682561140051490" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br>We went back to the room to freshen up after dinner. We had room<br>#108, a cute cottage-like room with a king-sized bed downstairs<br>and a tiny spiral staircase that led to a mini-room upstairs <br>with two single beds. We had a beautiful view of Mont St Michel<br>from our window. We were also given a key that allowed us<br>to have access to and from the hotel via the ramparts outside.<br><br>So later that night, we took a walk outside. The swish of the water<br>and waves slowly washing over the surrounding salt flats and the <br>brightness of the stars (as our eyes got used to the dark) combined<br>with the fact that we were the only 2 people walking around, made<br>it feel like it was just us in this small town, that we had the whole<br>place to ourselves. It was lovely.<br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH4_n9FnyAI/AAAAAAAAAu8/W5e8_Jgdtu0/s1600-h/IMG_6330.JPG"><img src="//bp2.blogger.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SH4_n9FnyAI/AAAAAAAAAu8/W5e8_Jgdtu0/s400/IMG_6330.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223682573441943554" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br>Kavin was so excited about the ramparts, pointing out the areas<br>where archers would have stationed themselves to fire arrows<br>through the thin slit openings in the stone walls and pointing<br>out the holes on the floor near the rampart walls where oil<br>would have been poured onto any invaders attacking from below.<br><br>Mont St Michel is also a jewel of military architecture, and looking at<br>the ramparts, it was awe-inspiring to realize that we were standing on<br>the same exact spot where hundreds of years ago, soldiers would<br>have stood to defend this place.<br><br>We made our way up many many steps to reach the door to the abbey<br>and also passed by some garden areas and also trampled along the<br>cobblestoned streets below, flanked by shops advertising crepes,<br>food and souvenirs. The shops were closed and there was an<br>air of peace and tranquility.<br><br>The lights that lit Mont St Michel’s abbey soon switched off at<br>midnight and Kavin and I had a wonderful moment looking up<br>at the thousands of stars that blanketed the sky, more and more stars<br>becoming visible as our eyes adjusted to the darkness.<br><br>We spotted Orion, the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, and the<br>fuzziness of the Milky Way in the background and we also saw<br>a shooting star skip across the heavens….<br><br>Pure bliss...<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/sets/72157606231110645/">Here are pictures of Mont Saint Michel at night</a><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=WH_liryncWQ:PtU_rrf1IXE:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=WH_liryncWQ:PtU_rrf1IXE:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/WH_liryncWQ" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504412008-07-12T18:26:00-04:002023-12-10T11:56:47-05:00Paris - Epicerie Rue De Sevres - Madeleine Place - Ille St. Louis<span style="font-weight:bold;">[Recount of a trip taken to France in February 2008]</span><br>Thursday 7th February 2008<br><br><br>Today was a day dedicated to food. <br>Well, it started off with me wanted to head to the market,<br>since I’d read that Parisian farmer’s markets were a pretty sight.<br>I decided that it would be good to see the Marché Raspail. <br>So we took the metro to ‘Rennes’ and walked to where the guidebook <br>had said the market would be, but we couldn’t find it. <br><br>Perplexed, I asked a man walking along the street about it and he<br>mentioned that there was no market today, but that there’d be one<br>tomorrow (ie. Friday). I was feeling cheesed with the guidebook<br>at this point, thinking that they’d made an error, but when<br>I went back to check the book later that day, I realized that<br>it was I, myself and Corrinne who had mistaken the days the<br>market was open.’ Tuesday and FRIDAY’ the book said.<br>duh….<br><br>So, we made our way to Le Grande Epicerie [38, Rue de Sèvres, Paris]<br>instead. It was absolutely delightful. A feast for the senses.<br>If one could go traveling around the world in a supermarket,<br>this foodhall would be the way to go. Not as finely decorated as <br>the Harrod’s foodhall in London, but packed with all types of<br>food from all over the globe. Kavin was disappointed that we couldn’t<br>find instant noodles. It was kind of funny that they had almost <br>everything but instant noodles. To their credit, they did<br>have some dried egg noodle. But nothing like Maggi Mee.<br><br>Kavin and Saucisson (ie. sausages)<br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662636985/" title="DSC07680 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3006/2662636985_6a4f31b0be.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07680" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>We then took the metro to ‘Madeleine’ where I’d read<br>they had a lot of good gourmet food shops.<br><br>Once at ‘Madeleine’, we walked along the crowded Place<br>de Madeleine till we came to Fauchon (26, Pl. de Madeleine).<br><br>There was a chocolatier, a pattiserie, with cakes and chocolates<br>topped with gold leaf, madeleines in various flavours, the ever-present<br>macaroons, gourmet rice bowls made out of lobster, foie gras and other<br>luxury foods. They even had a caviar bar….decadent!<br><br>Kavin and I bought some chocolates as gifts for Steve, Clinton and<br>Darlene and went on our way.<br><br>Next stop, Hediard. There, near the entrance of the store was a <br>beautiful display of fruit from all parts of the world. They even had<br>fresh rambutans! Lovely. And the man arranging the fruit in their<br>places joked that it would cost me 1 Euro to take photos of the fruit.<br>He was nice and said that unlike all the other stores we’d seen, Hediard<br>did allow photos to be taken of their store. I was delighted that I could<br>actually take pics this time around. Around the world via a basket of<br>fruit!<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2663462404/" title="DSC07687 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3199/2663462404_3bcff3f474.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07687" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>I walked around the store, taking in the well-designed displays<br>of spices, chocolates, pastries and finger foods in the market.<br>Gorgeous.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662639785/" title="DSC07699 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3189/2662639785_e756b29540.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07699" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>Next we walked into a Japanese patisserie store. It was eye-catching<br>in its use of paper decorations coupled with the sweets on display. <br>Kavin had the wonderfully brilliant idea of asking the Japanese<br>man behind the counter if he knew whether there were any good<br>Japanese food / Ramen places around. The man said ‘yes’ and told<br>us about Rue St. Anne where he said there were a lot of Japanese<br>food stores to be found.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662640111/" title="DSC07702 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3267/2662640111_d87c60f77c.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07702" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2663464760/" title="DSC07704 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3135/2663464760_2ebac36e0c.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07704" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662640519/" title="DSC07705 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3065/2662640519_e2f7634780.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07705" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>We got really excited about the prospect of having Ramen!<br>I guess the Asian palette in us never really dies away, no <br>matter how satisfied and seduced we are by the French cuisine,<br>or other type of cuisine for that matter.<br><br>We took the metro to ‘Pyramids’ station and walked to <br>Rue St. Anne. We didn’t have to walk far to spot the many<br>Japanese food shops that lined the street. We settled on eating<br>at Sapporo Ramen [ 37, Rue St. Anne, 75001 Paris], or as it<br>reads on its business card, ‘Sapporo Restaurant Japonais’<br><br>I had the Miso Butter Ramen (basically Miso ramen topped with a pat<br>of butter) and Kavin had the Char Siew Ramen. We also shared<br>an order of chahan (Japanese fried rice) and Karaige ie. fried chicken<br>Mmmm…..it was all so good. We were just grinning from ear to<br>ear, happy to find something familiar and good in Paris, our<br>first Asian meal in slightly over a week away from LA.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662645373/" title="IMG_6090 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3289/2662645373_50dc9176e7.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6090" height="500" width="333" /></a><br><br>Yummy Japanese Fried Chicken<br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2663470270/" title="IMG_6093 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3013/2663470270_f2ce778e2f.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6093" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>After lunch, we walked a little bit around the Opera district<br>and sat on the steps of the Opéra National de Paris Garnier to <br>people watch.<br><br>After this, I wanted to check out Ile St. Louis and the famous<br>Berthillon ice-cream shop, so we took the Metro to ‘Sully Morland’.<br>We would have gotten off at ‘Port Marie’ if not for the fact<br>that that station was under renovation and thus closed.<br><br>We crossed the Pont de Sully and saw some birds having fun<br>swimming in the river, we took some pics, then walked along the <br>Rue St. Louis en i’lle.<br><br>I wandered into the Eglise St. Louis en L’ile. Walking around the <br>church, I spotted a statue of St. Thérése, with a plaque bearing a copy<br>of her writing.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662642475/" title="DSC07725 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3039/2662642475_8d244def20.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07725" height="500" width="375" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662642359/" title="DSC07724 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3209/2662642359_9fd79375b7.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07724" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>Outside all along Rue St. Louis en i’lle were quaint little shops with <br>enticing window displays. Cheese a.k.a fromagerie shops, butcher shops,<br>all proudly displaying their goods.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2663473442/" title="IMG_6130 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3157/2663473442_5c2bdcf9ee.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6130" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662648927/" title="IMG_6131 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3048/2662648927_4e271604d7.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6131" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>We got to Berthillon and Kavin got a coffee ice-cream cone<br>whiles I got the strawberry sorbet cone. It was a little sweet<br>and I wish I’d gone for something more milky instead, but<br>ah well, it made for a sweet afternoon.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662643177/" title="DSC07732 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3261/2662643177_fb8dd6d706.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07732" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2663472974/" title="IMG_6125 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3212/2663472974_f51a53923c.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6125" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>Ice-cream and a peace sign...hmmm<br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2663468224/" title="DSC07736 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3041/2663468224_c2c9485b9b.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07736" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>We walked and crossed along the St. Louis bridge that connected île<br>St. Louis with île de la cite, then walked along the perimeter of the<br>Notre Dame and took our time to sit and rest on one of the benches.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2663474314/" title="IMG_6142 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3117/2663474314_b5210d8573.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6142" height="500" width="333" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662650939/" title="IMG_6157 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3202/2662650939_c2f5ce58b6.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6157" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>We also went into Notre Dame and took a few more pictures.<br>before heading back to the hotel. Dinner was crepes from a stand<br>along the street. It was good.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662641383/" title="DSC07716 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3086/2662641383_0e78d6c2f6.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07716" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>There's not enough space to put all the pictures from this day,<br>so I've kept them <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/sets/72157606133342486/">here instead</a>.<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=JyA1bUEgXYo:6cng8647PZ0:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=JyA1bUEgXYo:6cng8647PZ0:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/JyA1bUEgXYo" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504422008-07-12T11:43:00-04:002022-05-29T04:18:46-04:00Paris - St. Catherine, Arc de Triomphe, Laduree<span style="font-weight:bold;">[Recount of a trip taken to France in February 2008]</span><br>6th Feb. Wednesday 2008<br><br>A day marked by dead bodies. O.k, not exactly…<br>Well, we made our way to see the catacombs that laid under<br>Paris and Kavin was looking forward to the visit.<br><br>Unfortunately, the catacombs were closed for renovation!<br>Poor Kavin was so bummed.<br><br>Ah, but the day was not over yet. I’d read about St. Catherine<br>Laboure’s incorrupt body that lay in a glass coffin at the<br>Miraculous Medal Chapel in Paris. It was the same chapel<br>where the saint had been visited by the Virgin Mary on three<br>separate occasions.<br><br>So, we headed for the chapel and got there<br>at about 3 p.m. The chapel was filled with people<br>in silent prayer. I walked towards the altar and took a good look<br>at the glass coffin where St. Catherine Laboure’s body was laid<br>to rest. It’s amazing that her body has remained incorrupt ie.<br>undecayed all these years. She died about 150 years ago!<br>I tried take a look at her face because I’d read somewhere that<br>someone once commented on the lovely blue eyes that St.<br>Catherine had, even after death. But her eyes were closed under that<br>bonnet that had been placed over her head.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662581194/" title="100_1291 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3094/2662581194_1ffe7c0644.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="100_1291" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>I stayed a little longer in the chapel as I wanted to partake in the<br>4 p.m rosary. Kavin in the meantime went to the train station<br>to buy our tickets for our train ride to London from Paris.<br><br>It was awe-inspiring to know that I stood in the same place as<br>where Mary had appeared to St. Catherine. I’ve got to finish reading<br>the account of St. Catherine’s life. I think it was mentioned that<br>Mary had appeared to St. Catherine on the right hand side of the<br>chapel and that St. Catherine had also had a vision of St. Vincent<br>De Paul’s heart at the same spot on a separate occasion.<br><br>I found a place to sit, at a pew on the right hand side of the church<br>and I settled in there to wait the start of the rosary. There was a family<br>seated near me. Father, mother and 3 small girls dressed in very<br>dignified little jackets and dresses. I thought about how, perhaps,<br>St. Therese and St. Catherine could have been like those little girls<br>when they were at that age, going to church with their mum and dad,<br>who were setting a wonderful example to their children by exposing<br>them to the riches of their Catholic faith.<br><br>The church became even more packed before the rosary started.<br>There were people standing at the back of the church, looking for <br>a place to sit, but every seat was taken.<br><br>It was good to pray the rosary with the congregation gathered there.<br>And I loved the fact that even though the rosary was recited in French,<br>it was understood in all the languages of the peoples gathered there<br>who knew it by heart in their own language.<br><br>There is something touchingly beautiful about a chapel full of people<br>gathered to say a rosary, offering up spiritual roses to Our Lady; with<br>hearts full of thankful praise and hopeful yearning.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662581416/" title="DSC07565 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3147/2662581416_a1d49cbbe1.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07565" height="500" width="375" /></a><br><br>I guess it has something to do with being in the same physical place<br>where the Virgin Mary had shown herself and it felt good also to be <br>where the saint who had seen her was still present, in her mortal<br>body in the glass coffin…and to adore the Eucharist in the midst of such<br>spiritual richness and to see the throngs around me who came here <br>seeking answers, seeking healing, seeking a grace…well, something<br>moved within me and triggered my tears. There was a sense of <br>gratefulness for our lady’s care and mothering love.<br><br>I left the church right after the rosary was said. There were other prayers<br>being said and the church was packed to the brim, but I didn’t want<br>to keep Kavin waiting too long. <br>We walked next to the St. Vincent De Paul church, which was just down<br>the street, a little ways from the Miraculous Medal chapel.<br><br>It was a small unassuming church, nothing in the front to announce itself,<br>and walking in, I was surprised to find, just as Daniel from Sacre-Couer<br>had mentioned, that the church was devoid of the usual crowds of tourists<br>and visitors. It was almost empty and lighted very dimly.<br>Apart from Kavin and I, the only other people in the church <br>was a family of four who were walking towards the altar.<br>It was the quietest church we’d seen in all our time in churches in France.<br>Wooden pews within the church and wooden panels on the walls provided simple adornment and right in front of us, above the altar,<br>was the glass coffin that featured a wax figure of St. Vincent De Paul.<br>I’d read that his incorrupt physical heart had been placed within<br>the wax figure of his body.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662582002/" title="IMG_5887 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3245/2662582002_baa888347d.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5887" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>After this, we went to the Arc de Triomphe and climbed the stairs to the<br>top of the Arc to take in the view of Paris. It was lovely standing atop<br>the Arc de Triomphe and just watching Paris make the transition<br>from late afternoon to dusk, from dusk to evening, the indigo slowly<br>creeping upon us, the gradual lighting up of buildings and streets, and it<br>was pretty amazing to see the cars making their way around Paris’<br>most scary roundabout, the ‘Rue de Présbourg’. The Eiffle<br>started dancing in her nightgown flashing lights once 6 p.m came around.<br><br>Looking out onto the Champs Elysees<br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662582610/" title="DSC07593 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3037/2662582610_2a7a7b5bd2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07593" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662583346/" title="DSC07603 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3056/2662583346_c7e7669a9c.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07603" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662584192/" title="IMG_5971 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3054/2662584192_844cb16d33.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5971" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>Cars in a carousel around the Arc<br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662584086/" title="IMG_5966 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3038/2662584086_8c0f2c9a67.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5966" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>After this, we walked along the Champs Elysees and took a peek into <br>the Louis Vuitton store because Steph has mentioned that the store<br>was super ‘utt!’ (ie. rich and decadent) and worth checking out<br>just for kicks.<br><br>Then we walked along to Laduree. Oh…the display of pastries was<br>mouth-watering. There were pastries dressed in pink frosting, <br>macaroons in all colours of the rainbow, tarts, éclairs and more<br>all sitting pretty, alluring, breathtaking. <br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661760161/" title="DSC07639 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3184/2661760161_8832b56c45.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07639" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>We decided to have dinner there from the set menu.<br>I had salmon and toast triangles for appetizer and a lovely fish<br>dish for my main course. Kavin had a creamy chicken dish that was<br>served in a pastry crust and a chocolate dessert that looked absolutely<br>yummy.<br><br>Salmon and Toast Triangles appetizer<br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662585106/" title="DSC07641 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3140/2662585106_a6be45ae2e.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07641" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>Dinner. Dressed up in colour.<br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662585348/" title="IMG_6033 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3189/2662585348_e89531c2cc.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6033" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>After dinner, I couldn’t resist picking up some macarons and pastries.<br>I bought three : a blackcurrant, an orange blossom and a rose flavoured<br>macaroon. I also picked up a citron tarte and a framboise-rhubarb tarte.<br><br>[Later when I tasted the tartes back at the hotel, I realized that citron<br>was not ‘orange’ as I had thought, but actually lemon. Arggh.<br>Also, the rhubarb was a little too sour for my taste and I only ate a <br>couple of bites. Ann would have liked that rhubarb tart. Too bad<br>I couldn’t bring it back to the states for her. The macarons were good<br>too, but a little too sweet. I preferred the rose flavoured macarons<br>from the Angelina Tea Salon. It had a better rose flavour. Oh, but<br>Laduree’s packaging was so pretty…sigh]<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2663321574/" title="DSC07677 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3225/2663321574_7234ff9206.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07677" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>The setting for Laduree was also very cosy, despite the fact that<br>there were many tables packed into that small space, there was <br>enough of a sense of privacy for all. Nice warm lighting and<br>the curtains, window trimmings etc. looked very ‘royal’, for lack<br>of a better word.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661761383/" title="DSC07658 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3260/2661761383_8f91b4ecb1.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07658" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>After dinner, we walked, or rather, strolled the rest of the <br>Champs Elysees and made our way along Ave. Winston Churchill.<br>We took pics of the chariot and four horses, ‘Quadriga’ by Récipon<br>at the top corner of the Grand Palais. It was nice to have the street<br>almost all to ourselves. The buildings stood beautifully lit and serene.<br><br>We soon stumbled upon Pont Alexandre III, said to be Paris’ <br>prettiest bridge. It was close to 10 p.m by now and it felt<br>like the bridge was there, showing off its splendour just for us<br>because no other people were around. A couple of boats<br>cruised by on the Seine. <br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661762041/" title="IMG_6074 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3259/2661762041_2acc24e332.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6074" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661761917/" title="IMG_6068 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3280/2661761917_dc097fe36b.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_6068" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>We then took the metro back to the hotel from the ‘Invalides’<br>metro station.<br><br>More photos are on my flickr page <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/sets/72157606131736189/">here</a>.<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=GRw1wb_Ui6c:etrNGduoV-s:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=GRw1wb_Ui6c:etrNGduoV-s:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/GRw1wb_Ui6c" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504432008-07-12T09:16:00-04:002023-12-10T14:35:36-05:00Paris - Notre Dame Des Victories SacreCoeur-Montmarte<span style="font-weight:bold;">[Recount of a trip taken to France in February 2008]</span><br>Tuesday, 5th February 2008<br>Paris, France 8.45 p.m, cold and windy.<br><br>Sitting at a Starbucks getting a sugar-high from the leftover<br>Raspberry macaroon that I began eating for breakfast.<br>Got myself a decaf vanilla latte and I’m just sitting here<br>at the table, looking out the window, watching the world<br>go by.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661439475/" title="DSC07427 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3116/2661439475_294cacdc74.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07427" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>There’s a lot to recount, so perhaps it’s better to just <br>start from today and work backwards.<br><br>We went to the Notre-Dame Des Victoires church today<br>at 12 p.m to catch the Benedictines singing the noontime<br>liturgy of the hours. <br><br>[oohh…just bit into a rose-flavoured macaroon. It is so good.<br>I can really taste the rose flavour. I guess a macaroon is like<br>a biscuit, with a slight cake texture inside]<br><br>The nuns sang the liturgy of the hours so sweetly, dressed<br>in their black habits and white robes, they resembled the<br>picture of St. Therese dressed in her nun habit. One the<br>the nuns played a dulcimer ever so sweetly and another<br>taught the congregation how to sing the refrain of the<br>opening song and she also cantored and led in the singing.<br>She sang very well. Her alto voice was pure and delicate.<br><br>According to the pamphlet I’d seen in the pew, they were<br>singing Ps 87, and even though I didn’t understand a word,<br>it was moving to hear the spirit behind their singing and the<br>beautiful melodies floating like sweet incense in the basilique.<br><br>Mass soon began with the nuns voices blending in harmony<br>during the entrance hymn. The priest, an African man walked <br>in slowly, dressed in a red vestment. ( I believe he mentioned<br>something about it being St. Agatha’s feastday that day.)<br>I wish I had read the readings for the day beforehand because<br>both Kavin and I didn’t understand a word, until we got to<br>the Liturgy of the Eucharist.<br><br>After mass, I walked around the church. I was delightful<br>to be in the same church that St. Therese had visited on her <br>trip to Paris; the very church, with the statue of Mary and <br>the child Jesus, the one where she said that Mary had<br>smiled at her. There were many marble plaques on the walls<br>surround the statue, giving testimony to the number of people<br>who were grateful to Mary for her intercession.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661440049/" title="IMG_5794 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3224/2661440049_e6c1aeef4d.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5794" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661440517/" title="IMG_5800 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3029/2661440517_052fa6b9ef.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5800" height="500" width="333" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661440697/" title="DSC07457 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3178/2661440697_40ca184a67.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07457" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>I thought the statue of Mary and the child Jesus was beautiful,<br>although where St. Therese had seen Our Lady smile, I could<br>only see a very serious expression on Our Lady’s face. The<br>crown on her head was exquisite, as was the one on the child Jesus.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661440891/" title="DSC07458 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3118/2661440891_18622ccc6b.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07458" height="500" width="375" /></a><br><br>The most moving part for me during mass, was when the priest <br>was walking slowly back towards the tabernacle after communion <br>to place the Lord’s body back in the tabernacle,<br>and the organ was playing a reflectively deep, yearning,<br>tranquil piece of music that was almost modal, and the slow<br>steps of the priest spoke to me of our common humanity,<br>and of the many steps we would take in journeying back to <br>the Lord, so as to meet Him face to face one day.<br><br>I also saw the statue of St. Joseph, the one that St. Therese<br>had stood in front of so many years ago and said a prayer to St. Joseph.<br><br>It was also beautiful to see the statue of St. Therese herself,<br>surrounded by marble plaques given by people who<br>had had their prayer intentions fulfilled through her intercessions<br>and were grateful to the saint for her help.<br><br>There was a stained glass above the statue, depicting<br>the day when St. Therese and her father had visited that<br>same basilique and stood praying in front of the same<br>statues, in the same place as I stood. How humbling,<br>how awe-inspiring to be where the saint once was,<br>to see the same church, to pray in front of the same<br>tabernacle.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662264946/" title="IMG_5802 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3013/2662264946_e952ccfe7c.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5802" height="500" width="333" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662264744/" title="IMG_5801 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3201/2662264744_e4e89d3196.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5801" height="500" width="333" /></a><br><br>Afterwards, Kavin and I made our way to Montmarte,<br>taking the funiculaire up to the Sacre-Couer church.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661441183/" title="IMG_5808 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3177/2661441183_367f58808a.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5808" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662266816/" title="DSC07470 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3195/2662266816_e8b3cb523d.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07470" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662266672/" title="DSC07471 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3093/2662266672_ff81c92570.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07471" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>It was drizzly and cold and windy. We made out way<br>into the church and there, up high in a monstrance<br>upon the altar was the Lord, flanked by 6 lit candles.<br>I guess the Blessed Sacrament is being perpetually<br>adored at Sacre-Couer, which is perfect, because<br>it’s His heart, Him that we adore, His Sacre-Couer,<br>ie. Sacred Heart. I finished saying my rosary for<br>the sorrowful mysteries there and it was good to be <br>in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament with<br>Kavin beside me.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661441815/" title="DSC07477 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3232/2661441815_e3c08ae483.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07477" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><br>We walked around Sacre-Couer after this.<br>There was a lovely statue of Our Lady and the child<br>Jesus that I loved. She had such a sweet expression of<br>perpetual love, care and adoration towards the child<br>Jesus that she held in her arms and above the statue<br>was a stained glass window, portraying Mary holding<br>the dead body of Jesus after his crucifixion. I found<br>the altar, the stained glass and her beautiful face very moving.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662267170/" title="DSC07493 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3116/2662267170_261cb194e2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07493" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662491034/" title="DSC07497 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3038/2662491034_045f68d6b4.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07497" height="500" width="375" /></a><br><br>Later on, we went down to the crypt. The guy in charge,<br>Daniel, told us about the St. Vincent De Paul church and also<br>where to find the heart buried from one of the Alexandra<br>brothers who had built the Sacre-Couer.<br><br>After this, we headed to the Salvador Dali museum.<br>I loved his drawings, especially the biblical ones,<br>my favourite was the one with the Sacre-Couer,<br>in the middle of 2 faces, and I also liked the one with<br>the rat charmer, the culinary vane, and another drawing<br>that featured a lady atop a piano.<br><br>The Rat Charmer<br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661442523/" title="DSC07537 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3121/2661442523_859e39c10a.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07537" height="500" width="375" /></a><br><br>The Culinary Vane<br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662267854/" title="DSC07532 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3282/2662267854_cd30032225.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07532" height="500" width="375" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662268092/" title="DSC07527 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3273/2662268092_45f3f5f9b6.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07527" height="500" width="375" /></a><br><br>So much of art is inspired by sacred tradition and the<br>representations of Christ, Mary and the saints. Work<br>of our hands, best of our hands, given to Him, for He<br>gave us artists, the gift of art, of music, of expression,<br>and in turn, artists throughout the history of mankind have yearned<br>to express the beauty of Him who is Alpha and Omega,<br>and His mother, who through her ‘yes’, gave Him to us.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662267992/" title="DSC07521 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3222/2662267992_04c01195a6.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07521" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661442347/" title="DSC07510 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3038/2661442347_4321b917be.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07510" height="500" width="375" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662502674/" title="DSC07541 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3198/2662502674_db440ae5fe.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07541" height="500" width="375" /></a><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/m3IQRsLwhLQ" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504442008-07-12T07:54:00-04:002023-12-10T11:51:51-05:00Paris - Louvre and La Regalade<span style="font-weight:bold;">[Recount of a trip taken to France in February 2008]</span><br>Paris - Louvre and La Regalade<br>4th February 2008 Monday.<br><br>We spent most of the day at the Louvre. It was a Monday,<br>but it was still packed with people. Kavin and I decided to <br>rent an audio guide each, so that we could really know<br>what we were looking at within the museum. It was a good<br>decision and one that really helped me to appreciate the<br>art we saw a whole lot more.<br><br>As before (Musée Cluny) a lot of the art was inspired by<br>the events within the Bible, a lot of art depicted the Virgin with<br>child, Mary’s Annunciation, Christ’s cruxificion, his resurrection<br>and the various saints. There was so much to see.<br>Some of the ones that stood out: Cupid reviving Psyche with a<br>kiss, beautiful in the tenderness, the softness depicted, that moment<br>between life and death, the reaching downwards of Cupid to gently<br>life Psyche up from the throes of near-death. The intricate detail<br>in Cupid’s wings…such romance crafted out of an impossibly <br>hard material as marble. Beautiful.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661258679/" title="DSC07344 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3274/2661258679_49b0a78958.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07344" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>We also saw the Mona Lisa, the huge painting of the <br>Wedding at Cana (saw a cute tabby cat depicted at the bottom<br>of the painting and smiled) Also saw a lovely painting by<br>Raphael of Mary with the baby Jesus and baby John the Baptist.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661259875/" title="IMG_5653 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3171/2661259875_0d3b0f9c81.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5653" height="500" width="333" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662089844/" title="IMG_5650 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3273/2662089844_c36acd1aa7.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5650" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661259553/" title="DSC07364 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3292/2661259553_9156c4317f.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07364" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662085980/" title="DSC07369 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3296/2662085980_b870bf7087.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07369" height="500" width="375" /></a><br><br>We took a break at the café within the Louvre, and shared a<br>butternut squash soup, a sandwich and a cup of coke. Interestingly<br>enough, all the restaurants we’ve been to in France don’t<br>serve ice in their drinks)<br><br>We went to see the Egyptian artworks after this, saw a lot of mummies<br>and mummified cats.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662088420/" title="IMG_5742 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3130/2662088420_222aa87a98.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5742" height="500" width="333" /></a><br><br><br>The most interesting part to me was the <br>exhibition of the scribes and the writing tools used to make the<br>hieroglyphs and to write the Egyptian language. To think that the<br>papyrus and the letters there on display were written by someone <br>thousands of years ago just astounds me.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661260689/" title="IMG_5707 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3013/2661260689_e25249cd8e.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5707" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>We also saw the Code of Hammurabi Stele, one of the earliest<br>and best preserved law codes from ancient Babylon, made around 1760 B.C<br>and the magnificent ‘Winged Victory of Samothrace’ sculpture.<br>We didn’t manage to see much more beyond that…so vast is the collection<br>at the Louvre. The museum was scheduled to close at 6 p.m, but we were<br>chased out by 5.45 p.m, herded like sheep out of the museum, right after<br>we saw the ‘Tomb of Phillippe Pot’.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662087802/" title="DSC07404 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3255/2662087802_6e91844010.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07404" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662088216/" title="IMG_5682 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3267/2662088216_249581b45e.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5682" height="500" width="333" /></a><br><br>We walked in the dwindling light towards Rue de Rivoli and passed by the <br>Angelina Thé Salon, a tea salon and café famous for its chestnut-based <br>Mont Blanc dessert. We were hungry and tired by now and thought<br>about eating dinner at Angelina’s, but it was closing by then,<br>ie. 6.45 p.m<br><br>So anyway, I just went in and bought a huge raspberry macaron and<br>2 other rose macarons. Ah…the pastries were so pretty.<br><br>We took the metro back from Concorde station, went back to the hotel,<br>and got the concierge to help us make reservations for La Regalade for 8 p.m<br>I’d read that La Regalade was a good budget gourmet restaurant,<br>and I wanted to try it.<br><br>Taking the metro to ‘Alesia’ station, we got a little lost trying to<br>find the restaurant at 49 Jean Moulin, but thankfully, we stopped<br>at a Chinese restaurant to ask for some directions and got pointed<br>to the right direction.<br><br>The restaurant was a little place, with unassuming lace-curtains framing the<br>windows and inside, the wood fixtures and furniture added a nice<br>warm vibe to the place. The whole restaurant was packed and everywhere<br>I turned, I could see people laughing or talking heartily, and quite<br>obviously enjoying the food on their table. It was a good sign.<br><br>Kavin browsing the menu<br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662089162/" title="DSC07421 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3163/2662089162_f29905b3c6.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07421" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>The Menu<br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662089278/" title="DSC07422 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3077/2662089278_319c36d906.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07422" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>We got a small table by the window. The menu was quite<br>indecipherable, since everything was in French, but the waiter<br>was sweet enough to give us a rundown of the various dishes<br>in English.<br><br>I ordered the venison dish and Kavin had a pork dish.<br>Before that, I had the asparagus soup with foie gras and Kavin<br>had a basket selection of dried sausage with bread. We were<br>also served a pork terrine which tasted really good.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661263015/" title="DSC07407 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3262/2661263015_752a027687.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07407" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>Venison dish<br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662088948/" title="DSC07413 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3064/2662088948_8f9de0e5fa.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07413" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>Yummy pork dish :)<br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662089040/" title="DSC07414 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3226/2662089040_b77eb84c38.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07414" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>The main courses were rich, very tasty and good. Kavin’s <br>entrée tasted exceptional, the pork tender and juicy,<br>and the dish came with a serving of mustard mashed potatoes.<br>The highlight for me was the dessert. I relished every morsel<br>of that mint sorbet over grapefruit segments in rose syrup.<br>Something about it just lingered sweetly on my tongue.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2662089392/" title="DSC07424 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3178/2662089392_09ba7fa75c.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07424" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>It was a good dinner. Budget-concious decadence.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661263681/" title="DSC07417 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3020/2661263681_76731831d0.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07417" height="500" width="375" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2661263793/" title="DSC07415 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3168/2661263793_b717ea20fe.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07415" height="500" width="375" /></a><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/3t9O-nSNGDM" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/4259862008-06-26T15:32:00-04:002022-05-30T07:18:37-04:00Paris - Notre Dame / Museums etc.[Recount of a trip taken to France in February 2008]<br><br>3rd February 2008, Sunday.<br><br>We woke up early this morning to attend the 8.30 a.m<br>mass at Notre Dame. It was a beautiful crisp morning. We<br>got out of the Metro and I headed towards the first set of gothic<br>spires I saw, assuming that it was the Notre Dame I was walking<br>towards. Later on, I found out that the spires were actually from the<br>Sainte Chappelle church. So, we got a little lost and went on a detour,<br>but it was lovely to be the only two people walking along the<br>street and along the Seine river at that early hour, with the gradual<br>pinking of the sky.<br><br>There was a small congregation at Notre Dame for the 8.30 a.m mass.<br>And so, we had a nice, tranquil setting. We stayed for the 10 a.m mass<br>as well, just to see the beginning of it since it was a Gregorian mass<br>and we wanted to listen to some of the gorgeous Gregorian chants.<br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGRTF-oOnII/AAAAAAAAArs/SykxF1oV5DA/s1600-h/DSC07272.JPG"><img src="//4.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGRTF-oOnII/AAAAAAAAArs/SykxF1oV5DA/s400/DSC07272.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216385630578056322" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br><br>After mass, we walked around a bit in the church. It was a blustery<br>morning and Kavin was freezing as we walked towards the outside<br>of the church to check out the flying buttresses.<br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGRTGltn00I/AAAAAAAAAr0/POIJlrUKYfo/s1600-h/IMG_5463.JPG"><img src="//4.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGRTGltn00I/AAAAAAAAAr0/POIJlrUKYfo/s400/IMG_5463.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216385641069663042" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br><br>We went next to the underground museum called Crypte Archeologique.<br>to check out some of the remnants from the Roman-Gallo times, and<br>saw some baths and house buildings underground.<br><br>We walked across the Pont Au Change and stumbled upon a Chinese<br>food buffet restaurant. At 9 Euros, it was an attractive affordable option,<br>and Kavin was craving Chinese food anyway, so we settled into the small<br>restaurant for lunch.<br><br>It was fascinating to speak Mandarin to the two Chinese young ladies<br>manning the restaurant. Apparently, they’ve lived most of their lives<br>in France and French is their first language. They picked Mandarin<br>up from their parents. It’s fascinating how we usually expect people to<br>be like ourselves, taking ourselves as the norm, and when we find<br>differences between our expectations and reality, it fascinates us, open<br>up our previously narrow definitions of what the ‘norm’ might be.<br><br>Discovering people of Chinese descent in France who spoke French<br>and not Mandarin Chinese as their first language was surprisingly fascinating<br>to me at first, but I guess, it is not that surprising when compared with my situation, ie. speaking English as a first language. <br>I guess I can understand a bit better now,<br>people’s fascination that a woman from Singapore, who looks ethnically<br>Chinese, can speak English as her first language. I guesss I can appreciate<br>better, to a certain degree, the wide-eyed look of surprise I get when<br>I tell people who don’t know much about Singapore’s past as a British<br>colony, that I speak English as a first language, and not Mandarin<br>as one might suppose I would. And over the years, I’ve met more<br>and more people of Chinese descent who live in various parts of the world,<br>and have grown up speaking the language of the country that their<br>parents migrated to. Be it Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese or Indonesian.<br>What a colourful world we live in.<br><br>Anyway, after lunch and a carafe of water, we walked around,<br>passing by the Pompidou building which is essentially a building<br>that looks like it’s been turned inside out. All the pipes that would<br>normally be hidden within a building are exposed and coloured as<br>decorative at the Pompidou building. There, a silver-painted elf-dressed<br>man stood transfixed like a statue, standing on a box.<br><br>Kavin wanted to see what the ‘elf’ would do if he dropped a coin in the box.<br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGRTG6gI1SI/AAAAAAAAAr8/l5clDDLZ96s/s1600-h/DSC07278.JPG"><img src="//2.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGRTG6gI1SI/AAAAAAAAAr8/l5clDDLZ96s/s400/DSC07278.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216385646650250530" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" /></a><br>So he dropped a couple of coins in the box and the elf moved and turned, robot-like towards Kavin, gave a bow of thanks, and then put his pennywhistle to his lips and started playing a beautiful, child-like, wistful, fairy-tale-esque melody. It brought a smile to the faces of all who had gathered round to watch.<br>The ‘elf’ also serenaded a little boy who walked towards him.<br><br><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-560f64bb7aefef02" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/get_player">
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<br><br>Talk about discipline. I wonder how many hours, in the chilly wind,<br>the performer has to stay on that box in his fixed position. What a challenge<br>it must be to be able to move his body only within little moments in each hour.<br><br>Following this, we walked past Les Halles shopping centre and <br>took a look within the St. Eustache church. It was not as well-maintained as the Notre Dame, and in some sense, it was not as pretty, but there<br>was something about the roughness of the unpainted and unadorned<br>pillars, the antique quality of the pews and the simplicity of the church’s décor that spoke of a steadfast faith community that had endured the rough challenges of their faith through the years, and had emerged stronger.<br>It was a grey, robust-looking church with a quiet, graceful nature to it.<br><br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSEK12ouXI/AAAAAAAAAsE/BDM-90rta54/s1600-h/IMG_5504.JPG"><img src="//2.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSEK12ouXI/AAAAAAAAAsE/BDM-90rta54/s400/IMG_5504.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216439590191675762" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br>That’s my take on it. For Kavin, he liked the church’s interior because<br>it reminded him of one of the churches in his favourite computer games. <br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSELJJe4II/AAAAAAAAAsM/xs79ZdRftpA/s1600-h/IMG_5521.JPG"><img src="//1.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSELJJe4II/AAAAAAAAAsM/xs79ZdRftpA/s400/IMG_5521.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216439595370995842" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSELbUafkI/AAAAAAAAAsU/jMXvfh1ge4M/s1600-h/IMG_5523.JPG"><img src="//2.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSELbUafkI/AAAAAAAAAsU/jMXvfh1ge4M/s400/IMG_5523.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216439600248684098" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSEL3KVF5I/AAAAAAAAAsc/LMEvOPSVTfk/s1600-h/IMG_5534.JPG"><img src="//3.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSEL3KVF5I/AAAAAAAAAsc/LMEvOPSVTfk/s400/IMG_5534.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216439607722579858" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br><br>After this, we took the metro to the Musee National Du Moyen Age.<br>Since the first Sunday of the month is a day where everyone gets<br>free admission at the national museums in Paris, we decided to take<br>advantage of it. <br><br>The museum was crowded, but we still got to see various exhibits<br>of stained-glass, gold monstrances used in old churches, altar<br>decorations and wood sculptures and paintings of such events<br>in biblical history as the Annuciation, the presentation of Christ<br>at the temple and his crucifixion. Some of the paintings were<br>almost tangible in their portrayal of pain.<br><br>(The Trinity)<br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2615382008/" title="DSC07298 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3140/2615382008_852b20f574.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07298" height="500" width="375" /></a><br>(The dead Christ in His mother’s arms)<br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSOKLYEToI/AAAAAAAAAss/_egzphEJNHk/s1600-h/DSC07303.JPG"><img src="//3.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSOKLYEToI/AAAAAAAAAss/_egzphEJNHk/s400/DSC07303.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216450573905448578" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br><br>There was a plate holding a bronze effigy of John the Baptist’s head.<br><br>(John the Baptist’s head on a platter)<br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSOKfFTYII/AAAAAAAAAs0/LB464CygT-U/s1600-h/IMG_5565.JPG"><img src="//3.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSOKfFTYII/AAAAAAAAAs0/LB464CygT-U/s400/IMG_5565.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216450579195453570" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br>There was also a 15th century copy of the Liturgy of the Hours which<br>was a delight to view.<br><br><br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSOK4sLgyI/AAAAAAAAAs8/yvRemIgBzJo/s1600-h/DSC07306.JPG"><img src="//1.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSOK4sLgyI/AAAAAAAAAs8/yvRemIgBzJo/s400/DSC07306.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216450586069402402" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br><br>The highlight of the museums’ collection was definitely the series<br>of 6 tapestries collectively known as ‘The Lady And The Unicorn’.<br>the tapestries featured allegorical references to the sense of smell,<br>(lady making a flower chain, monkey smelling a rose), <br>sight (unicorn seeing its reflection in a mirror),<br><br>hearing (lady plays a portable organ), <br><br><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSTdPAk-UI/AAAAAAAAAtE/q-5L_gsmKhw/s1600-h/DSC07316.JPG"><img src="//3.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSTdPAk-UI/AAAAAAAAAtE/q-5L_gsmKhw/s400/DSC07316.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216456398856321346" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br>touch (the lady touches the unicorn)<br>and taste ( lady tasting candy) <br><a href="http://www.musee-moyenage.fr/ang/pages/page_id18368_u1l2.htm">See the pictures here </a>:<br><br><br>The unicorn’s expression was very sweet and cute. I especially<br>liked the tapestry where he looks at his reflection in a mirror held<br>by the lady. <br><br><br><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSTdR9boaI/AAAAAAAAAtM/j7EMkFVrBOs/s1600-h/DSC07309.JPG"><img src="//3.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSTdR9boaI/AAAAAAAAAtM/j7EMkFVrBOs/s400/DSC07309.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216456399648432546" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br><br>For dinner, we walked in some blustery winds to the Montparnasse<br>Tower, a 56-story building that stood higher than all the surrounding<br>low-rise buildings in the vicinity. The concierge had recommended the restaurant there for its views, as an alternative to the ‘booked 4 months in advance’ Jules Verne restaurant at the Eiffle.<br><br>I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to sit right by the window, but we were pretty close to it and the view was still incredible<br>from where we sat. We got there around 7 p.m and by then, we could<br>see the Eiffle dancing with fairy-lights. It was a beautiful sight,<br>little yellow and white lights covering the entire tower…it was<br>as if the tower was dressed in a glittery sequined gown and was<br>twirling her hair around in a 360 degree arc.<br><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2615406478/" title="IMG_5607 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3146/2615406478_98164588bd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5607" height="500" width="333" /></a><br><br>I had some scallops briochette and Kavin had a chicken fettucine<br>flavoured with foie gras. The food was tasted good, but the portions<br>were small and the cost was pretty pricey, but we were there more<br>for the view than anything else. From the window, we could<br>also spot the Arc De Triomphe and the streets spread out before<br>us like the spokes of a wheel.<br><br>(tower dressed up)<br><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSTePVJmyI/AAAAAAAAAtc/uqespAgU1G4/s1600-h/IMG_5573.JPG"><img src="//4.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSTePVJmyI/AAAAAAAAAtc/uqespAgU1G4/s400/IMG_5573.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216456416122477346" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br><br>(scallops briochette)<br><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSVzA0yAaI/AAAAAAAAAtk/_cUvL5vLnDE/s1600-h/DSC07325.JPG"><img src="//1.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSVzA0yAaI/AAAAAAAAAtk/_cUvL5vLnDE/s400/DSC07325.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216458972029125026" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br>(Kavin and his food)<br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2614555653/" title="DSC07330 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3091/2614555653_9a96b8efe6.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07330" height="500" width="375" /></a><br><br><br><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSVz6Udk4I/AAAAAAAAAt0/QbP-5RjQVpU/s1600-h/IMG_5596.JPG"><img src="//3.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSVz6Udk4I/AAAAAAAAAt0/QbP-5RjQVpU/s400/IMG_5596.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216458987462824834" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><br><br>After dinner, we took a nice walk back to the hotel, but not<br>before picking up some crepes from a crepe stand along the<br>Blvd. Du Montparnasse.<br><br>(crepe)<br><br><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSV0AxhbyI/AAAAAAAAAt8/f8Gyq397Ch4/s1600-h/DSC07332.JPG"><img src="//4.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/SGSV0AxhbyI/AAAAAAAAAt8/f8Gyq397Ch4/s400/DSC07332.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5216458989195325218" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=oEnNqlIt7vQ:wKcTi76Km_8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=oEnNqlIt7vQ:wKcTi76Km_8:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/oEnNqlIt7vQ" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504452008-04-03T14:51:00-04:002021-12-08T05:20:56-05:00Thinking about John Paul II on the 3rd anniversary of his death - April 2nd 2008I couldn't help but tear as I watched<br>a commemorative program on EWTN yesterday,<br>showing scenes from John Paul II's life.<br><br>Can't believe it's been three years since<br>he left us for our Father's house.<br><br>Truly, he followed the God he loved in<br>everything. Clutching, loving and <br>living the cross in his hunched body, <br>...he became increasingly fragile over the years.<br>Yet, there was such strength in his weakness.<br>Strength that the world can not understand.<br>The strength that can only come from God.<br><br>For as Pope Benedict said about John Paul II:<br><blockquote>"We can not forget that in his last silent witness of love for Jesus. Even the eloquent scene of human suffering and faith on that last Good Friday, showed believers and the world the secret of the whole Christian life. His "Do not be afraid" was not based on human strength, or about successes, but only on the Word of God on the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ.” <br><br>Pope John Paul II’s conformity to Christ lasted until the end of his life, Benedict explained.<br><br>"Gradually, he was stripped of everything, down to those last words, his trust in Christ appeared with growing evidence. As it happened to Jesus, it happened with John Paul II to the very end when the words took place of the final sacrifice, the gift of self. And death was the seal of the whole existence given to Christ. [John Paul II] conformed himself to Christ even physically in the case of suffering and the complete confident abandonment in the arms of the Heavenly Father. According to a witness who was nearby, "Let's go to the Father", were his last words to fulfill a life of total striving to know and contemplate the face of the Lord."</blockquote><br><br>Thanks to Salt and Light TV for the clip below :<br><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/tN8SflZ0uR4&hl=en">
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<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=pH0tRYL-gMs:TWyafNoBrs4:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=pH0tRYL-gMs:TWyafNoBrs4:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/pH0tRYL-gMs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504462008-04-03T12:06:00-04:002022-05-28T06:40:41-04:00Lyon to Paris - 2nd Feb. 20082nd February 2008<br><br>The next morning, a Saturday, I decided to attend a special mass<br>commemorating the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. I was told<br>that there were to be 500 nuns present to celebrate the occasion<br>and that mass would be at 9.30 a.m<br><br>So I woke up extra early and trudged up the hill, taking advantage<br>of the rosary walk, with its little metal roses planted on the path<br>to say my rosary.<br><br>It was heartwarming to see Notre Dame welcoming me as I trudged<br>up the hill :)<br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2386414268/" title="DSC07221 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2151/2386414268_c5fc7af1c9.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07221" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>When I got up to the church, I was greeted with a beautiful view.<br>the sun was breaking through the thick morning clouds lighting up<br>the sleepy town below. So I took a photo :)<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2385582155/" title="DSC07223 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3242/2385582155_9dbe3db8f6.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07223" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>There were people gathered at the back of the church where<br>I entered and some votive candles were being distributed.<br>I couldn’t understand what people were saying, since it was<br>all in French, but I managed to hold out my hand for a candle<br>and waited around with the rest of the people at the back for<br>the mass to begin.<br><br>Mass soon began with a procession down the middle aisle where<br>everyone carried their lit candles to place them by the altar.<br><br>I found a seat between two elderly ladies. It was so cute,<br>during the mass, that the French lady to my right was singing<br>ever so loudly and enthusiastically, as I shared the piece of paper<br>with song lyrics with her, and she sang, and looked at me, <br>as if to encourage me to sing along, and so I did, with whatever<br>I could muster of my non-existent French, I tried to echo her words<br>as she sang and she seemed to be enthusiastic in her encouragement<br>and smiled at me.<br><br>I wish I could have understood what was being said in the homily,<br>but at least when it came to the liturgy of the Eucharist, <br>I understood everything. That is the beauty of the Catholic, ie. universal church. <br><br>It was a beautiful mass, with the whole church singing along. <br>Very nice melodies too. The French composers have a knack for<br>a great melody, that’s never too simplistic or cliché;<br>but very memorable on the ear.<br><br>After mass, I made my way back to Villa Florentine and woke <br>Kavin up, and we got ready to leave Lyon for Paris.<br><br><em>Bye Lyon....(that's St. George church in the middle)</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2386414566/" title="DSC07237 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2072/2386414566_082146e70b.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07237" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>We took a cab to the train station, bought some sandwiches,<br>‘Poulet Roti’ ie. roast chicken sandwich, some Evian water<br>and took the 2 hour ride to Paris.<br><br><em>Cute sign on the train- silence that cell phone</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2386414682/" title="DSC07239 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3231/2386414682_6e2c04ac98_m.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07239" height="180" width="240" /></a><br><br><br><em>Pretty clouds along the way</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2386414760/" title="DSC07251 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3200/2386414760_68cfac5ce7.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07251" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><br>Then we took the Metro to get to the <a href="http://www.hotel-des-academies.com/uk/navigation.htm">Hotel Des Academies et des Arts</a>. <br>Kavin had picked the hotel and was looking forward to staying in it.<br><br>The rooms were very tastefully furnished, albeit on the small side.<br><br><em>The nice lotus flower decor on the wall.</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2386414882/" title="IMG_5390 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2036/2386414882_f4ec08f774.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5390" height="500" width="333" /></a><br><br>We went to the nearby La Coupole for dinner on the concierge’s recommendation.<br>The place was packed but fortunately, we didn’t have to wait too long<br>for a table. Kavin had the house special lamb curry <br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2385582999/" title="DSC07256 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2089/2385582999_c6bba278ae.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07256" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2385583085/" title="DSC07258 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2409/2385583085_fa776d3fe4.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07258" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>and I had the saucisson in bread, served with potato. It was yummy.<br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2386415306/" title="DSC07260 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2135/2386415306_443bceea16.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07260" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><em>Kavin trying to strike an artistic pose</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2386415414/" title="DSC07264 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3211/2386415414_2e2927f81e.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07264" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>There was a crepe-making station with a chef making crepes the whole<br>night. The waiter mentioned that it was a tradition to eat crepes<br>on this day, and only later when I went back to Google this shred<br>of information, did I find out that :<br><br><blockquote>The Catholic holiday of Candlemas, on 2 February, is a feast to commemorate the purification of the Virgin Mary and the presentation of baby Jesus. In France, this holiday is called la Chandeleur, Fête de la Lumière, or crêpe day.<br><br>Not only do the French eat a lot of crêpes on Chandeleur, but they also do a bit of fortune telling while making them. It is traditional to hold a coin in your writing hand and a crêpe pan in the other, and flip the crêpe into the air. If you manage to catch the crêpe in the pan, your family will be prosperous for the rest of the year.</blockquote><br>Interesting!<br>So, we refrained from the vino, but for dessert, we shared a Crêpe Suzette,( ie. a typical French dessert, consisting of a crêpe with a hot sauce of caramelized sugar, orange juice, lightly grated orange peel and liqueur (usually Grand Marnier) on top, which is subsequently flambéed.)<br>It was superb. And since I forgot to take a photo of it,<br><br>Here’s a link to someone’s blog on the pancake day thingie<br><a href="http://bordeaux-undiscovered.blogspot.com/2008/02/pancake-day-crpes-wine-and-recipes.html">http://bordeaux-undiscovered.blogspot.com/2008/02/pancake-day-crpes-wine-and-recipes.html</a><br><br>And more photos from the day are <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/sets/72157604376782281/">here</a>.<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=dR6QAZSpzSA:dV6_RkbvH6M:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=dR6QAZSpzSA:dV6_RkbvH6M:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/dR6QAZSpzSA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504472008-04-03T09:47:00-04:002023-12-10T11:46:29-05:00Lyon, France (Day 2) - 1st Feb. 2008Friday 1st Feb. 2008<br><br>This morning, Kavin and I walked up the hill for a close-up look<br>at the Notre Dame de Fourvière. <br><br><em>View of Notre Dame de Fourvière as one walks up the hill</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2385355255/" title="IMG_5207 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2382/2385355255_64c3c2e7e9.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5207" height="500" width="333" /></a><br><br><em>Notre Dame de Fourvière</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2386188130/" title="IMG_5206 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3030/2386188130_f42bc2028e.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5206" height="500" width="333" /></a><br><br>It was a long walk up the hill,<br>but the view from the top of the hill overlooking the town<br>of Lyon, bathed in the morning light was simply spectacular.<br><br><em>View of Vieux Lyon</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2386188640/" title="IMG_5231 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2190/2386188640_161b077527.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5231" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br><em>By the Sacred Heart</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2385355455/" title="IMG_5209 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2038/2385355455_cc2e19b5d2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5209" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>The church itself was beautiful within, with the walls<br>and ceilings made up mostly of bluish-green mosaic.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2386191452/" title="DSC07196 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2070/2386191452_62c6a849fd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07196" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2386191214/" title="DSC07197 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3147/2386191214_8b77e289ab.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07197" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2386188886/" title="IMG_5250 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2390/2386188886_ef20becde4.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5250" height="500" width="333" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2385356073/" title="IMG_5253 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3103/2385356073_dcf7ca0107.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5253" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2386189426/" title="IMG_5260 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3164/2386189426_43ba7b3766.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5260" height="500" width="333" /></a><br><br>A priest who could speak a bit of Mandarin came by to chat<br>with us. Apparently, there are quite a number of Chinese<br>students in the area. We had noticed the Chinese word<br>for love featured in a poster on the bulletin board of the<br>church. <br><br>We went down to the crypt later and it was interesting to see<br>the different ways that various cultures have chosen to<br>portray Mary. The various statues of Mary holding the child<br>Jesus took on different cultural references in their dress and make-up.<br><br><em>A lovely mosaic of one of the disciples</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2386189618/" title="IMG_5262 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2323/2386189618_92614af9ce.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5262" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>After this, we strolled down the hill to see the ruins of the Gallo-Roman<br>amphitheatre. Kavin was pretty happy to see the ruins and awed<br>at being able to see a part of the Roman civilization up close.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2386189794/" title="IMG_5269 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2250/2386189794_1da7be5dc6.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5269" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>Hopefully we’ll get a chance to go to Italy on another occasion<br>to see the Colosseum. Kavin would love seeing that.<br><br>Following this, we took the Funiculaire train down the hill. The<br>trip was much shorter than we thought it’d be, so we sat on<br>another trip up and down the hill before feeling a little more<br>satisfied with the whole experience.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2385357151/" title="IMG_5285 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3180/2385357151_94f2a62964.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5285" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2385357031/" title="IMG_5284 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3102/2385357031_2d37d6a7fd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5284" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>Then, we walked around the cobblestoned streets, taking in the <br>sights. There were many cute stores and mouth-watering pastries<br>displayed ever so enticingly in the windows of some stores. <br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2385358951/" title="DSC07215 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2266/2385358951_546f05c70e.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07215" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>There was also a museum featuring miniatures. On hindsight , I should<br>have gone in to take a look. Well, hopefully next time.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2386191584/" title="IMG_5307 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2392/2386191584_e599799da5.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5307" height="500" width="333" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2386190566/" title="IMG_5291 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3130/2386190566_f99496152f.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5291" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>We were a little hungry by now, and so stopped by a shop<br>to have some food. Kavin had his beloved saucisson (sausage)<br>and I had a Roquefort crepe, thinking that I’d be adventurous<br>in trying the Roquefort cheese. Now I know I don’t like Roquefort<br>cheese. It was stinky and strong like blue cheese. Ewwww.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2385358789/" title="DSC07214 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3211/2385358789_382b693d9c.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07214" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>So after the meal, we walked around a bit more, and walked into<br>St. Jean the Baptist Cathedral Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Lyon<br>where a really old, 14th century astronomical clock stood to the<br>left of the altar.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2385357635/" title="IMG_5295 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2022/2385357635_ce69a7b36e.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5295" height="500" width="333" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2385357849/" title="IMG_5306 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3149/2385357849_85a1433bdd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5306" height="500" width="333" /></a><br><br>We also stepped into St. George’s church for a brief moment,<br>then we waited to get a lift from my friend Eugene Soh<br>who recently moved to Lyon from Singapore.<br><br>Eugene soon picked us up in his SUV. I can’t believe that it’s<br>been 20 odd years since we last met or spoke to each other.<br>We knew each other back when we were both singing in the same<br>children’s church choir at Holy Cross Church in Singapore.<br>Strange how time seems to move along so fast sometimes. <br><br>It was very gracious of Jasmin, Eugene’s wife to cook<br>dinner at their apartment for Kavin and I and we all had<br>a wonderful time, catching up, chatting and getting<br>to know their 4 year old daughter Stacey and their<br>newborn, Jeremy who was adorably cute and charming.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2386192474/" title="IMG_5351 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2165/2386192474_8c274150ae.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5351" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>More pics from the day are <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/sets/72157604371130400/">here</a>.<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=I4LZkd1KGDo:E3CiK_RZYqw:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=I4LZkd1KGDo:E3CiK_RZYqw:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/I4LZkd1KGDo" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504482008-04-02T17:22:00-04:002023-12-10T11:32:57-05:00Lyon, France - (Day 1)- 31st January 2008Thursday 31st January 2008 - Lyon, France<br><br>We had a Nice speciality, Socca (ie. 'pancakes' made out of chick<br>pea flour, water and extra virgin olive oil) for breakfast.<br>It was delicious. <br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384751692/" title="DSC07111 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3294/2384751692_aa7cf4e9ce.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07111" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>Then we checked out of the hotel and<br>took the tram-bus to the train station to catch the<br>TGV (fast train) to Lyon. After getting our tickets,<br>I walked to the nearby Chinese restaurant to order<br>some take-out food to take along for our train ride to Lyon.<br><br>I was surprised at how the food is served differently here in <br>Chinese take-out places. The food is kept in chilled displays,<br>instead of heated displays here in the states and in Singapore) <br>then when the customer orders it, it is heated up, and the<br>plastic container is placed in a machine which seals the <br>container shut with a layer of plastic wrap. Interesting.<br>It’s also interesting to see how the ethnically Chinese people <br>here speak French as their first language. <br>I guess it would be just as interesting for a Chinese<br>from China to hear me speak English.<br><br><em>The train station</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384751836/" title="IMG_5140 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2024/2384751836_79aacbd4b1.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5140" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br><em>Views from the train window, while on the way to Lyon</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384752180/" title="DSC07121 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3289/2384752180_827a4e07c8.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07121" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384752016/" title="DSC07113 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3149/2384752016_fab381412d.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07113" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>We got into Lyon after about two hours on the train and took the metro<br>into old town Lyon or as the French call it, ‘Vieux Lyon’.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384752306/" title="DSC07122 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2069/2384752306_ef6e3da7ac.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07122" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>With its cobblestone streets, it looked very quaint and pretty.<br>High up on the hill, stood a beautifully lit church. We did not know it then,<br>but we found out that the church was the Basilique of Notre-Dame de Fourviere.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383921745/" title="DSC07125 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3264/2383921745_3990264718.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07125" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>We also passed by the St. John the Baptist Cathedral before making<br>the absolutely horrendous decision to lug our suitcases up a horribly<br>long flight of stairs, mistakenly thinking that it was the shortest route<br>to the Villa Florentine hotel where we’d be staying.<br><br>We almost died dragging and carrying those heavy suitcases up those steps. lol.<br>Must have been at least 300 steps up that steep hill. Along the way, a man<br>walking up the stairs seemingly took pity on us, helping me carry my <br>suitcase up one flight of steps.<br><br><em>Kavin taking a break from carrying luggage up the stairs</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384752634/" title="DSC07130 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2206/2384752634_5088725b03.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07130" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><em>The staircase from hell...</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383922099/" title="IMG_5173 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2373/2383922099_f7e78c82bd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5173" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>After a whole lot of huffing and puffing, we finally got to Villa Florentine.<br>The room was gorgeous with a view that overlooked Lyon.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383922231/" title="DSC07139 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2393/2383922231_79278c8f3f.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07139" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384753158/" title="DSC07148 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3043/2384753158_28ce65a8bb.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07148" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><em>View of St. John the baptist Cathedral and the rest of Lyon</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384753272/" title="IMG_5192 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2393/2384753272_35bf73ac93.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5192" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383922811/" title="IMG_5189 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2012/2383922811_1cd695e0ac.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5189" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br><em>The hotel's pool and grounds</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383922723/" title="IMG_5193 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2329/2383922723_39fbe837b6.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5193" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>It was soon time for dinner and we met up with Andrew and the rest from<br>New Asia as they had also made their way up to Lyon from Midem in Cannes.<br>Andrew and the rest picked Kavin and I up from the hotel and after a little<br>merry-go-round to find the restaurant, we finally found our way to Le Nord,<br>one of chef Paul Bocuse's 4 brasseries in Lyon, for dinner.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383922921/" title="DSC07180 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2419/2383922921_3180c4fceb.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07180" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>I had a French onion soup for a starter and the main course was veal<br>coated with breadcrumbs, gratin potatoes and for dessert, meringue ice-cream<br>and fruit. Kavin had white basmati rice and chicken and he had a <br>sausage in bread for a starter.<br><br><em>The menu at Le Nord</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383923131/" title="DSC07163 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2026/2383923131_21e0e66cbf.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07163" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><em>Kavin with his starter of saucisson bread</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384753862/" title="DSC07152 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2152/2384753862_923d687062.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07152" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><em>My starter of a French Onion soup</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384753980/" title="DSC07154 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2352/2384753980_788a7f4e02.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07154" height="500" width="375" /></a><br><br><em>Kavin's main course of basmati rice and chicken</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383923563/" title="DSC07161 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2102/2383923563_f02a931779.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07161" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><em>Veal and gratin potatoes for my main course</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383923463/" title="DSC07157 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2052/2383923463_4a158e4ab4.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07157" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><em>Victor and Joe</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383923687/" title="DSC07159 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2293/2383923687_d546dcb895.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07159" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><em>Andrew and Joe's godsister Mala.</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384754414/" title="DSC07160 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2096/2384754414_cc7e95d697.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07160" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><em>Joe and Mala</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383923887/" title="DSC07167 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3038/2383923887_1a56b8106d.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07167" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><em>Through the drinking glass.</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383924011/" title="DSC07165 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3119/2383924011_87b58f3b99.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07165" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><em>couldn't resist playing with the drinking glass.</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383924083/" title="DSC07166 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3084/2383924083_f462d1863a.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07166" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><em>Glorious dessert</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384754888/" title="DSC07168 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3120/2384754888_17a0c67b49.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07168" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383924335/" title="DSC07169 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2034/2383924335_cbbc502058.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07169" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><em>Jessica and I</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384755128/" title="DSC07172 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2186/2384755128_b675549d07.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07172" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>Good company and good food.<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=0h009wwlaWA:A1oLbsL-1WM:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=0h009wwlaWA:A1oLbsL-1WM:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/0h009wwlaWA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504492008-04-02T15:11:00-04:002023-12-10T14:23:03-05:00Nice, France - 30th January 2008Wednesday 30th January 2008 - Nice, France<br><br>I woke up earlier than Kavin and decided to go explore<br>the vicinity. I walked down the street towards the beach and stopped by <br>a little café for breakfast. I had a croissant<br>with butter and strawberry jam, and a cup of Darjeeling tea.<br>It came up to 8 Euros. ouch. But it was nice to be able to sit,<br>read a bit of the Herald Tribune newspaper and watch traffic go by<br>along the beachfront of Cannes.<br><br><em>Enjoying breakfast at a cafe in Cannes, France</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384348016/" title="DSC07031 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2201/2384348016_4d777901e0.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07031" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><em>The beach front at Cannes, France</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383518477/" title="DSC07033 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2105/2383518477_c59839d591.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07033" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>After this, I made my way to look for the little church that<br>I’d seen on my map and happened to stumble upon a pattiserie.<br>Wow…my very first French pastry shop encounter.<br>I walked in, and bought a chocolate croissant for Kavin’s breakfast.<br><br><em>The patisserie</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383518899/" title="DSC07038 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3042/2383518899_dbb1239bb4.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07038" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>I also ‘kay poh’ –ed the next door grocery store, and was fascinated<br>by the different brands of food they had on display. Then, looking<br>at my map discretely ( I didn’t want to appear too ‘touristy’. I liked<br>the idea of blending in as much as possible) , I found my way<br>to the little church of Notre Dame de Pins. I walked in an discovered<br>that the church was actually bigger than I thought it was from the outside.<br><br><em>The interior of the church of Notre Dame des Pins.</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383519309/" title="DSC07046 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3262/2383519309_018b9fe036.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07046" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>A priest saw me walk in and motioned me to the chapel in the back.<br>I couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying in French,<br>but I figured he wanted to let me know that it was good to visit<br>the chapel. So I went, and it was beautiful in its simplicity.<br>Jesus was there in the tabernacle, so it was a good place<br>to just be quiet for a while and to say a rosary.<br><br><em>The little chapel and tabernacle</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383519107/" title="DSC07043 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2319/2383519107_c80897747c.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07043" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><br>After this, I walked around the church, admiring the nativity<br>scene that was set up in the left hand side of the church. <br>(This being the end of January, they still had the Christmas decorations<br>up. I thought it was great. In the US, it seems that Christmas decorations<br>are taken down so fast right after Christmas which seems a pity)<br><em><br>Some information I found about the church on the internet<br>EGLISE NOTRE DAME DES PINS<br>Nineteenth Century Church<br>32 Boulevard Alexandre III<br>(25 Boulevard Eugène Tripet)<br>Cannes, 06400<br>Phone: +33 4 93 43 26 39<br>Fax: +33 4 93 99 56 17<br>Website <br>East of the city of Cannes, the Eglise Notre Dame des Pins is part of an active parish, with masses conducted every day of the week except Thursday. Baptisms and marriages are also conducted here, and the church is open to visitors every day but Sunday. The eclectic styles of the architecture, encompassing the 1864 construction and two additions, is Roman, English Gothic, and Italian.</em><br><br><em>Outside view of the church</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383519631/" title="DSC07057 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3235/2383519631_69537145a7.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07057" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>I walked back to the hotel. Refreshed by my explorations.<br>We checked out of the hotel soon after and took a private cab<br>(the taxis in France were on strike that day to protest some ruling)<br>to Nice, checking into the Le Meridien. The room was nice, and <br>since we were starving by then, we walked towards the nearby <br>McDonalds (A travesty you say? to be eating McDonalds in France!)<br>It was surprisingly good. We had a Raclette burger that came with<br>some French local cheese and bacon. I’ve found that it’s always<br>nice to explore the local McDonalds in various countries as they<br>always have special burgers that are specifically catered to the taste<br>and culture of each country. Case in point, Singapore had the ‘Rendang<br>Burger’ in their McDonalds for a while, which featured a nice, rich<br>curry paste derived from the Malay culture’s cuisine, paired with<br>a beef patty, sandwiched in a bun.)<br><br><em>The McDonalds hamburger box</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383519837/" title="DSC07061 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2182/2383519837_f4e237e744.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07061" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>We went for a tour of Nice after this in an open-top tour bus.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383520585/" title="DSC07075 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3130/2383520585_16b224edf0.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07075" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384350046/" title="DSC07067 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm4.static.flickr.com/3241/2384350046_d506dc9988.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07067" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383520215/" title="DSC07063 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2177/2383520215_fd88c37b75.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07063" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>Among the attractions we stopped by to see were the Cimiez<br>Monastery. <br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383521135/" title="IMG_5090 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2013/2383521135_3d123761b0.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5090" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>Resplendently beautiful in terracotta hues on the outside,<br>it featured many works of art within, and perhaps for that reason,<br>we were not allowed to take any photographs within the church.<br>But it was so beautiful, with all it’s painted arches and domes.<br>To the left of the church, the Blessed Sacrament was in a small side chapel.<br>We spent a little bit of time there before heading downhill to check out the <br>vicinity. Kavin wanted to see the gallo-roman museum at the<br>Musée et site archeologique de Cimiez but it was closed for renovations.<br>ah well…We passed by the Matisse Museum but decided to skip it.<br><br><em>Ruins of Gallo-Roman amphitheatre</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384350538/" title="IMG_5085 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2052/2384350538_82131eb7a3.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5085" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>Walking through the public park was quite a lovely experience.<br>It was a workday but surprisingly, there were many people there in the park,<br>just enjoying the laid back, overcast skies and balmy afternoon. There were parents<br>playing with kids, toddlers in push-prams and senior folk playing ‘bocce’<br>which resembles a bowling game, except that instead of pins, the winner is the<br>one who places the bigger ball closet to the small target ball.<br>The French truly know how to savour life in all its finest details.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384350744/" title="IMG_5087 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2327/2384350744_062fe4e81e.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5087" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>We also spent a little bit of time looking at the ruins of a gallo-roman<br>amphitheatre. Amazing to think that it’s been standing there for so many<br>years.<br><br><em>Ruins of Gallo-Roman amphitheatre</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384350538/" title="IMG_5085 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2052/2384350538_82131eb7a3.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="IMG_5085" height="333" width="500" /></a><br><br>After this, we caught the tour bus back to the hotel and walked around<br>later for a bit along the streets of Nice before catching sunset on the beach.<br>The beach of Nice is lined with pebbles. We found a ralphie rock. (ie.<br>a grey-white rock that resembled our grey-white cat Ralphie) and laughed<br>about it. The sun was beautiful in the sky. It is said that a lot of painters<br>and artistes love the light in Nice and in other towns along the French<br>Riviera. The light does look different here. There is more of a colourful<br>orange/ yellow glow to it. No wonder the paintings by Matisse had<br>a lively colour to them. It’s interesting how light looks different from<br>place to place. I’ve noticed that the light in LA has a whiter hue than<br>that in Singapore where the light is more akin to the light on the<br>French Riviera, a bit more orangey.<br><br><em>Kavin dressed like a Franciscan, standing on the pebbled beach of Nice.</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384351122/" title="DSC07085 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2311/2384351122_9a31710fb6.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07085" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383521449/" title="DSC07082 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2151/2383521449_d8fb6b85d9.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07082" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2384351366/" title="DSC07091 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2318/2384351366_6eaac8260b.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07091" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2383521737/" title="DSC07096 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2307/2383521737_59ac2e02e2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC07096" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>We were hungry after this and spent a long time trying to decide <br>where to go for dinner before finally settling in at a ‘Maori’ restaurant<br>where I had gnocchi and Kavin had a chicken dish. Yes, I know,<br>we’re in france and we choose to have ‘Maori’ food? LOL.<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=pU1J1PA6JL4:OqjZIDJjs88:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=pU1J1PA6JL4:OqjZIDJjs88:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/pU1J1PA6JL4" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504502008-04-02T10:19:00-04:002023-12-10T12:35:18-05:00MIDEM showcase in Cannes, FranceTuesday 29th January 2008<br>Cannes, Midem.<br><br>The 30 minute showcase went well. It was nice to meet a couple<br>of people who came up to say they really enjoyed the showcase<br>and some mentioned they were moved by the songs, so I was happy<br>about that.<br><br>Check out the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/sets/72157604001932948/">photos</a> from MIDEM.<br><br>We had supper later with Mike Matsushita and the rest from S2S<br>at Café Roma. It was great to see Mike again.<br>Eva, his wife had knitted him a nice blue scarf, so it was great<br>to see her handiwork too, even though she was not there in person.<br><br>After supper, we all went back to our hotels. Mike offered to walk<br>us back, but I figured that we would be able to find our way<br>back to the hotel with no problem, so we bade adieu to all and <br>walked back. <br><br>Well, we got lost along the way. It was about 2 a.m by this time<br>and we had been walking for a while without spotting the street<br>that we were looking for. The streets seemed deserted apart from<br>a couple of cars that drove by. Thankfully, a man with a MIDEM<br>tag was walking along the road going in the opposite direction<br>and so we asked him if he knew where the hotel was and he pointed<br>us in the right direction.<br><br>We chatted a bit in the minutes that followed and found out that he<br>happened to be from Canada, but he’d been to Singapore before.<br>We introduced ourselves and he looked pleasantly surprised, <br>and explained that he had my album because a friend had given<br>it to him. Wow… what are the odds. Talk about a chance meeting.<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=jpmtncm7EkM:tiMYkOLvdJ0:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=jpmtncm7EkM:tiMYkOLvdJ0:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/jpmtncm7EkM" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504512008-01-21T10:58:00-05:002023-12-10T12:01:50-05:00Sandwiches & Seagulls, Tea and a RainbowLovely, puffy-grey-white clouds in the sky...<br>and the sun is bright yellow...I'd say,<br>canary yellow. <br><br>Looks like I've found a nice spot for future lunches.<br>I'm here at the Artisan Cheese Gallery, waiting<br>for my Duck Confit Sandwich. It's a place with cream <br>cheese coloured walls, a sprinkling of wooden tables<br>and chairs. Cheese from all over the globe is displayed<br>on the counter, wheels wrapped in shrink wrap, imported <br>pasta and sauces displayed on wooden shelves. Really<br>pleasant. Black and white pasta ribbons, lavender and rose<br>jellies, artisan salt packaged in square bottles, <br>varieties of honey in jars.<br><br>The Duck Confit Sandwich tastes good, albeit<br>a bit too sweet because of all the fig jam they<br>layered on it. The duck meat is juicy, the bread <br>is just the right thickness and it's nice and warm.<br>MMmm.....<br><br>--------------<br><br>Now here at Peets.<br>The weather has gotten rainy and grey.<br><br>Oh, a rainbow briefly appeared, in the midst of grey<br>rain clouds...<br>it's gone now, but it was beautiful and it reminded<br>me of the promise that God had made to his people<br>so long ago, that he would never again flood the earth<br>as he did in Noah's time.<br><br>I pointed the rainbow out to the two people sitting<br>outside of Peets, an older gentleman and a younger<br>pre-teen of about 12. Both were wearing yarmaulkes<br>and the young boy was reciting something,<br>presumably scripture in Hebrew and the older<br>gentleman was his teacher, I presume, because<br>he was correcting the boy as he read.<br><br>The boy read the scriptures, perhaps just like<br>our Lord did, so long ago, reading the scripture<br>of his Jewish heritage as a boy in the temple,<br>elucidating awe from his elders at the wisdom<br>he had beyond his years.<br>--------------<br><br><br>Three little seagulls soaring in the sky.<br>Where do they come from? We're quite far,<br>I would think, from the sea, yet these seagulls<br>come by pretty regularly.<br><br>They give glory to their creator in the way<br>they fly, soar. flap their wings,<br>for they do what they were made to do,<br>and they do it beautifully.<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=RIXJr22hv6s:1_hoKwZUehY:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=RIXJr22hv6s:1_hoKwZUehY:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/RIXJr22hv6s" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504522008-01-20T10:56:00-05:002022-08-12T10:33:39-04:00Celebrating LifeSo, I had a beautiful birthday. I'd been<br>going back and forth about whether to go for the 'Walk<br>For Life' and I'm glad that I did it.<br><br>After all, what better way is there to celebrate<br>my 35th year of life than by taking part in a<br>pro-life walk, a walk that calls to mind the need<br>to cultivate a culture of life, especially during<br>this, the 35th anniversary of the Roe V Wade, U.S<br>Supreme Court decision to legalise abortion in the<br>US.<br><br>It is well worth reflecting/contemplating on the<br>fact that I was born, 35 years ago, just around<br>the time when the Supreme Court here chose<br>to allow people to legally abort the unborn<br>for whatever reasons, whatsoever.<br><br>The babies aborted around that time would<br>have been my age this year. In taking<br>part in the walk, I felt that it was one<br>way I could help to give a voice to the<br>voiceless, to make a stand on behalf<br>of those who did not have a choice to keep their<br>lives.<br><br>In place of a birthday dinner celebration<br>as usual, or a birthday cake, or birthday cards,<br>I broke bread and shared the feast of Christ's<br>body and blood with my fellow brothers <br>and sisters in Christ at mass at St. Patrick's<br>Church, I had the pleasure of enjoying the candles<br>lit at the Tabernacle and I had a placard to hold<br>'Women Deserve Better Than Abortion' during the<br>Walk For Life.<br><br>Yes, it took 6 hours to drive there and 6 hours to <br>drive back to LA, but it was a journey not made<br>in vain. After all, no life is lived in vain.<br><br>It was a celebration of life. The life that is<br>given to all of us, the life that only He<br>can give, or take away.<div class="feedflare">
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=BPg1rMbbYNE:6lsmWyU8Z9Q:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?a=BPg1rMbbYNE:6lsmWyU8Z9Q:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife?d=qj6IDK7rITs" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" /></a>
</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/BPg1rMbbYNE" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504532008-01-19T18:58:00-05:002023-12-10T11:57:36-05:00Walking for Life on my birthday in San Francisco, CA<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/R5kP9c4jAFI/AAAAAAAAArk/apoJh9wYpdg/s1600-h/crowdoverpass.gif"><img src="//4.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/R5kP9c4jAFI/AAAAAAAAArk/apoJh9wYpdg/s400/crowdoverpass.gif" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5159172396529418322" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><em>photo by Gerald Augustinus</em><br><br><br><br>Saturday 19th January 2008<br><br>Woke up at 8.50 a.m.<br>By the time I left my hotel room it was about 9.20 a.m and I <br>made my way across the street to the Ferry Building to check out<br>the Farmer's Market.<br><br>Lined up in a row alongside the water were blue tents where<br>stores and vendors had set up their wares. Vendors were<br>selling everything from breakfast platters to skillet potatoes<br>to Lavender Sugar, Oysters, stalks of Cherry Blossom and organic<br>fruits and vegetables.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2216573349/" title="DSC06885 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2031/2216573349_b3d179118d.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06885" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2217366110/" title="DSC06886 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2169/2217366110_ffb6af3329.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06886" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2217365122/" title="DSC06878 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2101/2217365122_1c69fd9489.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06878" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2216573103/" title="DSC06883 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2052/2216573103_0d30f68c13.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06883" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>There were also a few musician street performers, including<br>one dressed as a cowgirl, complete with cowboy boots and hat,<br>but wearing a short skirt and checkered tights as well.<br>She was playing the accordion, kicking her boots into the ground<br>as a percussive instrument and singing 'What Do You Do<br>With A Drunken Sailor'. She did a very spunky rendition of the song<br>and it sounded great. I dropped a dollar in her jar and went<br>on my way.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2216572869/" title="DSC06881 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2400/2216572869_e1cdf1056d.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06881" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><br>I walked around, taking in the sights and the smells. The Bay<br>Bridge was standing majestic against the light blue sky,<br>waves gently lapping away at the pier and the morning sun was gradually<br>turning up its intensity.<br><br>Sausages were sizzling on the grill, oysters napping <br>on beds of ice-chips and abundant fruits and vegetables<br>in a sea of orange, reds and greens. I made my way to the<br>bakery inside the ferry building called the Frog Hollow<br>Farm where I coughed up $4.50 for a Ham and Gruyere Cheese Turnover,<br>basically a crispy pastry puff filled with ham and gruyere cheese.<br><br>I then made my way to the Peets in the building, but not before<br>strolling around, admiring the seductive sights of stores<br>specialising in cheese, and others specialising in caviar,<br>mushrooms and artisan bread. It was a feast for the senses.<br><br><em>Daintily laid out treats from the Boulettes Larder</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2217364356/" title="DSC06872 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2106/2217364356_fb673d28a0.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06872" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>The Peets in the Ferry Building terminal was not ideal,<br>ie. they had run out of ceramic mugs and were using paper<br>cups, but the seating was great because the unfinished wood<br>tables and chairs were placed next to a huge window<br>that overlooked the bay waters. <br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2216571961/" title="DSC06874 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2371/2216571961_db381c12a8.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06874" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>I got my tea, settled in to eat my turnover and browse<br>through the headings of the New York Times.<br>The front page carried a story about<br>how the cooking oil prices were soaring and driving up the<br>cost of food globally. The story mentioned something about<br>how a factory in Malaysia that had planned to begin a business<br>converting cooking oil into diesel oil lays idle now because<br>the owners can no longer afford the cost of the raw materials,<br>ie. the cooking oil, to turn a profit in the making of diesel<br>oil. Hmmm...I guess paying $4.50 for a small crispy puff pastry<br>with Ham and Gruyere cheese will soon not be considered extravagant,<br>but normal in the light of future spikes in the cost of food.<br><br>After my breakfast, I took another quick stroll around the stores<br>in the Ferry Building marketplace, making a mental note to<br>come back after the 'Walk for Life' to get a sandwich from<br>Lulu Petite. (I'd read that their sandwiches, esp. the crispy<br>chicken sandwich was good.)<br><br>It was about 10.25 a.m by this time.<br>I quickly made my way back to the hotel. I had to pack,<br>check-out, get my bags stored at the hotel concierge and<br>then make my way over to the Justin Herman Plaza lawn<br>for the <a href="http://www.walkforlifewc.com">'Walk for Life' </a>rally and I didn't want to miss<br>the beginning. From the Ferry Building, I could already<br>see a big group of people gathering at the rally area.<br><br>By 10.50 a.m, I was on my way, walking to the rally.<br>Along the way, I passed by another rally gathering, <br>although it was quite small and sparse, a small gathering<br>of people for abortion had gathered and some were shouting<br>some slogans that I could not make out.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2216574013/" title="DSC06889 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2377/2216574013_f6cb4d8e65.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06889" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>Walking along to the Walk for Life rally, I was heartened<br>to see so many people walking along with me to gather at the lawn.<br><br>There were already many groups gathered there, people from<br>all walks of life, all colours and all ages, all gathered<br>to make a stand against abortion. Many had come via church groups,<br>college students groups...I saw banners for groups like the Trinity <br>Students, Knights of Columbus, and the Paulists priests were <br>on site too to take video footage of the event.<br>Sign boards like 'Abortion Stops A Beating Heart' and <br>T-Shirts sporting 'Pro-Woman, Pro-Child, Pro-Life' were <br>worn.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2216574805/" title="DSC06895 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2266/2216574805_49d5b1dbb7.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06895" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2217367830/" title="DSC06898 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2364/2217367830_8f8ddbf7af.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06898" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><br>I saw a man distributing 'Women Deserve Better Than Abortion'<br>signboards and I asked if I could have one sign too. I wanted to <br>have something to hold, to show my solidarity for the cause,<br>to make a stand in as much of a way as possible.<br><br>The rally soon began. A welcome address was given by the founders of<br>the 'walk for life' two women, Eva and Dolores. <br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2216576267/" title="DSC06905 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2297/2216576267_7931842bed.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06905" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>A lady called Francine led the crowd in the singing of America's <br>national anthem, and this was followed by a prayer by one of the bishops who was there.<br>Following this, <a href="http://www.kingforamerica.com/">Alveda King</a>, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s niece walked<br>to the podium to share her witness to the truth. <br>She herself went through two abortions and experienced first-hand<br>how abortion hurts women. She gave a very moving speech.<br><br><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/nVdXom-cpQA&rel=1">
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<embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/nVdXom-cpQA&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br><br>Next up was a lady called <a href="http://www.giannajessen.com/">Gianna Jessen</a>. This woman spoke very powerfully.<br>She had survived a saline abortion. Her mother had tried to abort<br>her via a saline abortion (read more about it here) but she would<br>not die. In a twist of irony, she was born in the abortionist's<br>clinic and the abortionist had to sign her birth certificate!<br>I thought that was amazing. As a consequence of her near-death<br>experience, she suffers from cerebral palsy and walks with a limp<br>but she is such a spunky individual, and she spoke with such humility, yet<br>with such power and conviction. I was really moved by<br>what she said and the manner in which she conveyed it.<br><br><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/EtZ2Vhq-Mxk&rel=1">
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<embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/EtZ2Vhq-Mxk&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br><br><a href="http://www.jesseromero.com/">Jesse Romero </a>was next. He told the story of St. Telemarcus.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2216577009/" title="DSC06914 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2398/2216577009_abc55dc5fe.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06914" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>St. Telemachus lived in the time of the Gladiators in Rome.<br>He single-handedly made a difference by witnessing to the truth.<br>In the arena of 80,000 people gathered to watch a gladiator<br>match, St. Telemachus was the lone voice that shouted<br>out to the Caesar to 'stop the killing in the name of Christ'.<br>He was run through with a sword by the gladiator, but he<br>repeated his plea with his dying breath, 'Stop the killing'.<br>and after he died there, in his own pool of blood in the middle<br>of the coloseum, caesar and his wife were so moved by his<br>convictions, that he left the arena. 80,000 filed out of the <br>colosseum and the game was never held. Subsequently, the <br>Ceasar signed a declaration banning all future gladiator<br>games. Truly one man can make a difference. <br><br><a href="http://www.blackgenocide.org/home.html">Rev. Clenard Childress</a> was next and he mentioned how appropriate it was that Alveda King was there that day,<br>because Martin Luther King Jr. too, was a fighter for the right to life and liberty<br>for all. <br><br>The walk was soon to begin and the organisers told everyone<br>to be respectful, to keep things peaceful, <br>and not to engage with the hecklers along the walk.<br>It was great to see too, that the San Francisco police<br>force were out in force to help make the walk as safe<br>for everyone as possible. It was real nice to have them<br>there. There must have been about 25,000 people there<br>at the walk. <br><br><br>Before the walk started, I had made the acquaintance<br>of Diana Sheffield and John McRaven. They were both<br>from Davis,CA and we started talking and sharing about<br>the circumstances that had brought us there to join<br>in the 'Walk for Life'. Diane and John had joined<br>some 50 members of their parish on a bus from Davis,CA<br>to be there. I told them that I had driven up the evening<br>before from Los Angeles to be there and they were pleasantly<br>surprised that I made the 6 hour drive.<br><br>The walk soon began and everyone followed along the path,<br>along the Embarcadero. Traffic stopped whenever we<br>had to cross a road, thanks to the wonderful police<br>officers who were there to bring order to the event.<br><br>It was a good leisurely 2 and a half mile walk.<br>There were people singing hymns, and we could hear someone <br>else playing the guitar and a tambourine ringing out<br>to keep time.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2216578011/" title="DSC06930 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2076/2216578011_572c97dbec.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06930" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>Others were praying aloud and many others, like myself,<br>John and Diane, had a good time chatting. <br>John, Diane and I had a good talk along the way,<br>sharing our thoughts about everything from 'why<br>don't people understand that life begins at conception',<br>to discussing the topic of wine-making and physics,<br>both subjects John and Diane were studying in college,<br>and I shared with them my life as a singer-songwriter<br>in LA. [Diane also talked about Pope Benedict and John<br>Paul II and I shared my thoughts with them too about <br>how I thought John Paul II really lived as he preached,<br>ie. being a powerful witness to the cross of Christ<br>as he bore the cross in his burdened body]<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2216578745/" title="DSC06938 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2120/2216578745_02132f5d83.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06938" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><br>Along the way, various groups of people had gathered<br>along the side to heckle and challenge the 'Walk<br>for Life' participants. Carrying signs like 'My<br>body is not an incubator' and other varied signs<br>like 'Free Kisses', and another bore a sign saying<br>'Stop Home Abortions - Give Us A Choice', with a pair of <br>clothes-hangers stuck to the sign. Yet another smaller<br>group was carrying huge cut-out shaped lips. Dressed<br>in predominantly hot pink and red colours, some<br>with netted black stockings and pink ribbons in their<br>hair and extra dark black-khol-lined eyes, they <br>were quite a colourful sight. Along the way, <br>the promise of 'Free Kisses' was seen being redeemed<br>by various strangers kissing the sign-holders.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2217370946/" title="DSC06933 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2134/2217370946_9bbe818407.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06933" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>We soon walked past Pier 39, and the Fisherman's Wharf.<br>Tourists stopped to take photos and restaurant cooks<br>from the restaurants in the area stood by windows<br>to take in the sight of the 'Walk For Life' participants<br>walking on by. <br><br>Some pro-choice activists had grouped together as<br>a small marching band contingent and were playing<br>a fun Brazillian rhythm, complete with a brass<br>section and a trio of college-age guys walking in front of me<br>took the opportunity to sing along to the beat,<br>'Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole...Pro-life, Pro-life'.<br><br><em>Pro-Abortion supporters along the way shout slogans as the pro-life walkers walk by.</em><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2217372140/" title="DSC06943 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2030/2217372140_6982ef0036.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06943" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>It was a beautiful day, clear skies, a light breeze,<br>and the sun shone a warm golden yellow.<br><br>I looked around me at the people who walked along-side<br>me. There were seniors with full heads of white hair,<br>Asians, Caucasians, Hispanics and African-Americans,<br>toddlers being carried in arms, infants in strollers,<br>young kids walking along hand-in-hand with their<br>parents, and I saw two kids, a little girl playing<br>with her gameboy and a 3 year old boy taking a nap<br>in a little plastic wagon pulled along by their<br>dad who was taking part in the walk. <br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2217371056/" title="DSC06934 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2195/2217371056_6d94147964.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06934" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2216579133/" title="DSC06941 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2273/2216579133_d981b7be2d.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06941" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2217372576/" title="DSC06948 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2289/2217372576_d25d5475be.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06948" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>It was inspiring to see just as many men as there were women.<br>The myth is that abortion is a 'women's' issue'. <br>But here, on this Saturday morning, standing all around me,<br>were men of all age groups, and from all economic<br>walks of life, the young, the teenagers, the young<br>fathers, the grandfathers, making a stand, showing<br>that this was an issue for all peoples. When<br>life is being threatened, when the most vulnerable<br>are being threatened, all should defend it.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2217372824/" title="DSC06950 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2162/2217372824_7085b39284.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06950" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>The walk soon made its way along the waterfront<br>where seagulls were scattered en-masses along<br>the water and I joked about how it was good<br>that they were not starting a seagull formation<br>to crap on us.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2217373468/" title="DSC06959 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2018/2217373468_ceac5ebd10.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06959" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><br>We soon walked up and along a little winding path <br>through a canopy of Eucalyptus trees and downhill <br>towards the Marina Green.<br><br>John, Diane and I were astonished to see that<br>a big crowd had already gathered at the Marina<br>Green, the end-point of the walk. We did not<br>realise how big the crowd was. All behind us, and up<br>half a mile ahead of us, stretching as far<br>as the eye could see, were people in the 'Walk<br>for Life', forming a continuous human chain.<br>Truly there is strength in unity and solidarity.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2216581015/" title="DSC06962 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2050/2216581015_332c0015de.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06962" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2216580251/" title="DSC06953 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2018/2216580251_7c16aef009.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06953" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>It felt good to reach the end of the walk.<br>It was the furthest that I have walked in a while<br>and my feet and calves were starting to ache :)<br><br>It was also great to see Fr. Frank Pavone, the national<br>director for 'Priests For Life' there<br>at the podium on the stage at the end. He told<br>the crowd to keep striving to make a difference<br>and encouraged everyone in their fight to defend<br>life. He has been a very passionate catalyst in<br>the pro-life movement here in the US, and<br>he was one person that I was hoping to say hi<br>to and to share my music with, so it was good<br>to go up to say hi to him. <br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2216581087/" title="DSC06963 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2414/2216581087_30d59c6768.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06963" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>I soon bade farewell to John and Diane,<br>and decided to give them a copy each of my<br>cd as a token of my appreciation for their<br>company along the walk and in hopes that we<br>would keep in touch.<br><br>I decided to walk back towards the starting<br>point of the walk where my hotel was, but I was<br>unsure if it was the fastest route back.<br>Spotting two men walking along the way back,<br>and overhearing them talking about the walk,<br>I asked them if they knew the fastest<br>way back to the Justin Herman Plaza.<br><br>They mentioned that they were walking back<br>to the Bart station which was where the Justin<br>Herman Plaza was, and said that I could walk along<br>with them. It was about 3.25 p.m by this time<br>How wonderful is God's providence :)<br>I had come alone to this walk and had found companions<br>along the journey both to and fro!<br><br>Brendan, Steve and I introduced ourselves<br>to each other and had a good chat along the way back.<br>Brendon and Steve gave me some tips on where to go<br>the next time I was back in SF (St. Peter and Paul<br>Church in North Beach, Telegraph Hill) and Brendan<br>mentioned how music could be a really powerful tool<br>for good or bad and I agreed with him. He started<br>mentioning Wagner, and how Wagner had inspired<br>Hitler! Oh my...must see if it's true.<br>It made the walk breeze by and soon, we were<br>back at the Ferry Building, close to the hotel<br>and the Bart station. It was 4.30 p.m by now<br>and we bade each other goodbye.<br><br>I made my way into the Ferry Building Market.<br>I was starving and had only had a bite of the <br>tonkatsu that i had picked up from the Japanese<br>deli earlier on that morning. I made my way<br>back to the Lulu Petite deli. I weighed in my<br>choices : Crispy Chicken Sandwich, Duck Rillette<br>Sandwich or the enticing Tomato and Blood Orange Braised Pork Sandwich. <br><br>I picked the pork sandwich. It was so delicious.<br>Moist, tasty, and it had a really good flavour to it. <br>I savoured every bite and chased it down with a sip of Darjeeling tea.<br>(yes, I'd gone back to Peets too to get another<br>cup of Darjeeling Kalimpong Tea.)<br><br>It was close to 5.15 p.m by then. I had planned<br>to visit the Notre Dame Des Victoires church for mass,<br>but it was a little too late now, since mass<br>started at 5.15 p.m there. I briefly considered<br>not attending mass, but I knew that if I didn't<br>attend mass on my birthday, if I didn't partake<br>of the feast that He had prepared for me in the<br>Eucharist, it would somehow, make my birthday<br>feel less complete.<br><br>Fortunately, I found out from the hotel concierge that<br>there was a church just about 10 blocks away,<br>on Mission and 4th Street. St. Patrick's church.<br>Hmmm.....I wondered if it was going to be as<br>architecturally beautiful as the Notre Dame des Victoires<br>church that I had read about. It was about 5.35 p.m<br>by this time and i worried that I would not be able<br>to make it on time for the Euchastic part of the mass<br>if I were to walk there. I hem and hawed on my<br>decision for about 10 minutes, before I decided<br>to take a cab. Just at that moment, a cab pulled up <br>in front of the hotel and I jumped in. It took<br>about 5 minutes and i was there.<br><br>The church looked small but majestic on the outside<br>and even more beautiful on the inside. I was pleasantly<br>surprised. Statues of St. Therese of Lisieux and<br>St. Teresa of Avila stood along the side, silently<br>praying. <br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2216581831/" title="DSC06972 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2301/2216581831_e976d3bf43.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06972" height="500" width="375" /></a><br><br>Thankfully, the congregation were in the midst<br>of the prayers of the faithful, so I had arrived<br>just in time to catch the liturgy of the Eucharist.<br><br>It was so good to receive Him again in the Eucharist.<br>It was the best birthday feast I could have wished<br>for.<br><br>After mass, I wandered around the church, and <br>knelt for a while before the tabernacle. <br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2217374460/" title="DSC06969 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2254/2217374460_37019ae4fa.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06969" height="500" width="375" /></a><br><br>There were many candles lighted in front of the<br>altar, and I imagined that this, was akin to<br>the birthday candles that I would have had<br>on some birthday cake. I imagined that it<br>was Jesus's gift to me, the blessing of<br>the beauty of these candles, glowing and<br>swaying in the glass jars, even better<br>than birthday candles on a cake.<br><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2217374160/" title="DSC06966 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2291/2217374160_1623ae6543.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06966" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><br><em>"Dear, Lord,<br>Thank you for this, my 35th year of life.<br>Thank you for all the blessings you've given me<br>all these days of my life, for these 'birthday candles'<br>lighted beautifully here by the altar.<br>Thank you for your providence this day and all the days<br>before that. I want to give you all the glory for the life<br>that you've given me, for the body and blood that you've<br>fed me with this day at the beautiful sacrifice of the mass,<br>your birthday feast to me. So much has transpired today <br>that has warmed my heart. Thank you for all the gifts <br>of this day, for the beautiful clear blue skies<br>and the comfort of warm sunshine, for the visual feast <br>of the farmer's market, for the seagulls by the water, for<br>the friends made, the moving speeches, the 'tour' of <br>San Francisco with the walk, for your mother, for your<br>providence in getting me to mass just on time for the<br>Eucharistic celebration, for the beauty of this church.<br>You've given me such a lovely birthday celebration Lord,<br>thank you for helping me to celebrate this life you've<br>given me. Amen."</em><br><br><br>I walked to the back of the church and read<br>a bit more about the history of the church<br>and browsed through the photos taken of the<br>church throughout its history. I was surprised<br>that this church, that I had almost passed over<br>in favour of wanting to go to the Notre Dame des Victoires<br>church, had a long distinguised history and was one of the<br>first few churches in SF's history. What a blessing<br>that He brought me there.<br><br><em>Pipes for the organ at the back of St. Patricks Church</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2216581985/" title="DSC06973 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2068/2216581985_9892b20bf2.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06973" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br><em>View of the church's altar after mass</em><br><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/corrinnemay/2217375126/" title="DSC06975 by Corrinne May, on Flickr"><img src="//farm3.static.flickr.com/2202/2217375126_99f5810e7e.jpg" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="DSC06975" height="375" width="500" /></a><br><br>After mass, I walked back towards the Hotel Vitale.<br>The moon hung, almost full, overhead, like a lamp<br>shining over the high-rise office buildings. The<br>stars though only a few were visible, added the<br>sparkle to the indigo evening. <br><br>I drove back to LA soon after. The 5 and a half<br>hour journey was pretty much uneventful and went<br>by smoothly. The roads were not crowded, so that<br>was good. By the time I reached back home,<br>it was 1.15 a.m in the morning. <br><br>Altogether, a good birthday :)<br><br><br>P.S I found a nice video that<br>kinda summarises the 'Walk For Life' 2008<br>here :<br><br><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/Dr6xlb_Z-9w&rel=1">
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<embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/Dr6xlb_Z-9w&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br><br><br>Resources :<br><br><a href="http://www.rachelsvineyard.org/">Rachel's Vineyard</a> - for women, men and families<br>hurt by abortion. <br><a href="http://www.walkforlifewc.com">Walk For Life Official Website</a><br><a href="http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/">Silent No More Awareness Campaign</a><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/LFhkK78c9Ko" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504542008-01-18T18:58:00-05:002024-03-23T01:11:40-04:00Travelling to San Francisco for the 'Walk For Life' 200818th January 2008<br><br>Finally set out at 1.45 p.m this afternoon<br>for San Francisco.<br>Stopped by Nippon Ramen for some Miso Ramen<br>for lunch. It tasted better than I remembered it.<br>Also stopped by Peets to get a Darjeeling Kalimpong<br>to go. It felt so good to sip it in the car, with<br>the sunroof open and the wind breezing through.<br><br>The 405N was pretty packed from after the 118<br>split, so I decided to take the surface roads<br>and reconnect later with the 5.<br><br>Bessie (the name I give my car) <br>led me through SF Mission blvd.<br>to Rinaldi, to the winding roads going<br>uphill on Woodley.<br>Woodley turned into Balboa Blvd, then<br>to Foothill Blvd. and I soon filtered<br>into the 5.<br><br>The ride was surprisingly smooth going<br>up north. I guess it was a blessing in disguise<br>that I left the house later than I intended.<br><br>The hills were beautiful, like the furry<br>paws of a labrador, or like hot cross<br>buns dusted with cocoa powder,<br>the setting, orange sun cast shadows deep<br>in the crevices of the hills that brought<br>out its terrain beautifully.<br><br>Wide open roads...<br><br>All throughout, I had my speakers<br>tuned in to EWTN, Catholic channel and<br>Symphony.<br><br>I listened to some programme on scripture<br>reflections on St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians,<br>Chp 4 verse 17-21, as the hosts were talking<br>about baptism and how it is a beginning,<br>not a graduation as some people think it is.<br><br>Also heard a programme on Patrick Madrid's<br>show where he talked with a listener<br>who was questioning Mary's role in Catholism<br>and whether catholics were biblical in their<br>doctrines concerning Mary. Quite interesting.<br>It inspires me to blog about Mary and what the bible<br>says about Mary in a future post<br><br>Also heard him talking about distance<br>learning ,eg. Catholic Distance University<br>being one, and a website, ie. www.wdtprs.com ?<br>'what does the prayer really say' weblog<br>on latin prayer translations,.<br><br>Anyway, I reached caught the tail end of the interfaith<br>prayer service at the Cathedral of St. Mary's.<br>There were some people at a reception and as I scanned<br>the strange unfamiliar faces, I found myself<br>asking Him if there was anyone he wanted<br>me to meet. <br><br>All the same, I was starving,<br>So I made my way to Whole Foods market<br>on 1765 California Ave. and got white bean with<br>turkey chilli, garlic mashed potatoes<br>and a leg of rotiserrie chicken from the hot<br>food bar. Too bad there wasn't much of a selection<br>there. after all, it was already about<br>9.25 p.m by the time I got there.<br><br>There was a Peets there too! But it was closed. Sob.<br><br>Anyway, it's getting late, so I'm turning in.<br>This hotel is lovely. yeah.<div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/5tgZoiazRXY" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504552007-12-25T15:02:00-05:002024-03-22T04:22:26-04:00A quiet ChristmasKavin and I are spending a quiet Christmas<br>over here in Los Angeles,CA<br><br>It's been a busy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day,<br>I played the piano in Church for Midnight Mass,<br>which only ended around 1.40 a.m in the morning.<br>I walked out to my car after that, and discovered that<br>the car battery was dead because I had inadvertently<br>left my lights on. <br><br>Thank goodness, Kavin was able to drive the VW<br>to jumpstart the dead battery. The winds were pretty<br>chilly and blustery too. Thank goodness for coats<br>and gloves...<br>By the time we got home, it was close to 3 a.m in the morning.<br>and then I had to wake up for the 8 a.m morning<br>Christmas Day mass to play for the morning masses.<br><br>I got back home and spent most of the early afternoon<br>taking a much needed nap. Got up for a home-cooked meal.<br>Kavin had cooked some stewed pork and carrots and <br>fried rice with egg and scallions and it was yummy.<br><br>The cats have gotten fed their favourite 'Chicken Feast'<br>canned food, so they're happy. I'm seriously tempted<br>to stick some plastic reindeer antlers over their<br>heads for fun :)<br><br>I called Mummy and Papa last night to wish them a Merry<br>Christmas. They had had a lunch gathering on Christmas<br>Day for both the Foo and Chua sides of the family <br>and about 60 people had gathered for the occasion.<br>I wish I could have been there, but at least I got back to Singapore<br>six times this year, so the homesickness is not too bad.<br><br>I'll probably spend the rest of the remaining hours<br>of Christmas having a quiet, reflective time...<br>it would have been nice to have some time with the blessed sacrament,<br>but I suppose playing for 4 Christmas masses will have to do :)<div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/cDI1pb9wLxw" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504562007-12-23T18:40:00-05:002024-03-22T04:21:34-04:00Performance at Peets Coffee and Tea in Tarzana, CA<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/ZC9C5kHL884&hl=en&fs=1">
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<embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/ZC9C5kHL884&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br><br>It was a lovely evening at the Peets Tea and Coffee in Tarzana,CA<br>I had written most of the songs on the album 'Beautiful Seed'<br>whilst sipping a cup of Darjeeling tea at Peets, so it seemed fitting<br>that I'd be singing the very songs I wrote at the place where<br>they had their creative birth :) Thanks to David, the store<br>manager for inviting me to sing :)<br><br><br>Ann and her aid Toni were already there, waiting for Kavin and I to arrive.<br>They had taken the bus from North Hills,CA and Ann was wearing a <br>little trinket that had frosty the snowman blinking from a necklace<br>and Toni had a similar one with Santa Claus. That was super cute to<br>see :)<br><br>We also met Steve and Glenn whose friend Gary had told them to<br>come and hear me sing :) <br><br>It was also great to see Phil again, who was there with his<br>girlfriend Audrey and his father. We had last met in Chicago,<br>so I was surprised to see him in L.A. Just so happens he's back<br>to visit family for the hols. He's still got about 2 more<br>years to go in his medical studies Madison, Wisconsin.<br><br>Also present were Angeline and her friend. She was visiting<br>L.A from Singapore and they would be heading to Vegas for a side<br>trip before she returned to Singapore. It was nice to hear<br>the familiar Singapore accent again :)<br><br>Lan, a lady of Vietnamese descent who lives in Germany<br>and her friend from Korea were also present. <br><br>Duc from church was there too with his daughters Vivian and Alisha,<br>so it was fun to sing 'Little Superhero Girl' for them :)<br><br>Eddie who used to be part of the Peets team in Tarzana,<br>and his brother Eric were there. I hadn't seen<br>Eddie in a couple of months, so it was great to see<br>him again and I'm glad that he managed to catch the show.<br><br>Beau and his girlfriend Dana were there and I was pleasantly<br>surprised to know that we shared a common friend, ie.<br>Jonathan Bowerman who happened to be their tai-chi teacher's<br>master.<br><br>I also met Larry Kent who interestingly enough<br>used to sing with The Carpenters! wow.... that's <br>amazing to meet someone who used to tour with them.<br>It's such a small world. <br><br>Alana who usually works behind the counter at Peets<br>was there too and I thanked her for coming :)<br><br>And it was great to chat with Jack too. Hadn't seen<br>him in a while. He looked nice and festive in a red<br>jump-suit. Always nice to catch a familiar face :)<br><br>Altogether I had such a fun time singing tonight.<br>I also sang some Christmas carols, and almost forgot<br>the words to the Birthday Song (and had to look<br>at my lyrics! argghh...how embarrasing) but the<br>audience was sweet enough to let me start the song over<br>and it was good to wish Eddie and Lan 'Happy Birthday' with the song.<br>Surprisingly enough, they both shared the same<br>birthday, ie. December the 20th! And they had just<br>met tonight :) Talk about coincidence.<br><br>It was good also to test out my new sound system.<br>I really enjoyed using it. I'd just bought it<br>a few weeks ago and it's working out pretty well. Yay :)<br>Kavin was also really sweet to help out with the setting<br>up and disassembly of the sound system, and with taking<br>pictures and video. So glad he was there to help :)<br><br>After my set, Mark Fossom, a guitarist-singer<br>did a lovely set. His guitar sounds so clean and pure<br>when he plays it. I'm going to check out his myspace page.<br><br>Kavin and I had dinner at Nippon Ramen later<br>with Olivia and Grace. Yummy Negi Ramen and<br>Curry Rice. yum.<br><br><br>Song-list : not in order<br><br>Angel in Disguise<br>In The Bleak Midwinter<br>Hark The Herald Angels Sing<br>Little Superhero Girl<br>Fly Away<br>Close to You<br>Mr. Beasley<br>The Birthday Song<br>Safe in A Crazy World<br>Five Loaves and Two Fishes<br>City of Angels<br>Shelter (Cherry Blossom Edition)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12852845-6480082208863291689?l=corrinnemay.blogspot.com" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" /></div><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/BIaUTcG-VgQ" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504572007-12-23T18:36:00-05:002024-03-23T01:11:40-04:00Babysitting for my nephews, Dylan and Ryan.<em>Uncle Kavin and Dylan</em><br><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/R3HWf-WrirI/AAAAAAAAArM/cHAv4gJB1hU/s1600-h/IMG_4440.JPG"><img src="//2.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/R3HWf-WrirI/AAAAAAAAArM/cHAv4gJB1hU/s400/IMG_4440.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5148131693863602866" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><em>Uncle Kavin and Aunty Corrinne with Dylan and Ryan</em><br><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/R3HWg-WrisI/AAAAAAAAArU/3q6KDsMp3Fc/s1600-h/IMG_4722.JPG"><img src="//2.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/R3HWg-WrisI/AAAAAAAAArU/3q6KDsMp3Fc/s400/IMG_4722.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5148131711043472066" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br><em>Kavin's parents with their grandsons</em><br><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/R3HWhuWritI/AAAAAAAAArc/6cRPCNzUz2E/s1600-h/IMG_4391.JPG"><img src="//1.bp.blogspot.com/_eCNhWG8WU-g/R3HWhuWritI/AAAAAAAAArc/6cRPCNzUz2E/s400/IMG_4391.JPG" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5148131723928373970" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a><br>Babysitting -<br><br><br>Kavin and I have spent the past week up in Northern California,<br>helping his sister to babysit her two-year-old<br>son Dylan and her almost 3 month old infant, Ryan, in the interim period as she looks for a nanny.<br><br>I've discovered that taking care of a kid requires patience,<br>a good amount of humour, and a willingness to view the world<br>through the kids eyes. <br><br>Everything becomes a kind of game, even the feeding<br>becomes a challenging creative exercise<br>"see! here comes a tiny tree! (read : broccoli floret)<br>See if you can eat the flying saucer! Eat this last<br>mouthful and you can have a tangerine!"<br><br>Kids have an innate fascination with the world.<br>Talk about repetition! The same game will yield<br>hours of fun way after the adults get tired of playing<br>the same game over and over again :)<br><br>And for such a tiny person, you cannot imagine<br>that their poop would stink so bad!<br><br>Ryan has begun to be responsive<br>to our conversations with him and loves to laugh<br>at the way I say 'Broccoli!' at him. Fascinating.<br><br>In this season of Christmas, it makes me reflect<br>about how much humility and trust the Lord Jesus<br>must have had in accepting the Father's will<br>to being born helpless, totally dependent,<br>as a human baby.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12852845-5972031558725417531?l=corrinnemay.blogspot.com" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" /></div><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/4h9mI2WOlbA" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504582007-12-21T18:58:00-05:002024-03-22T04:18:28-04:00An Advent Reflection - A Gift For JesusThe nights have been getting colder<br>and colder over here in California<br>and the days and moments of light have been getting shorter.<br><br>And yet, I find a lovely reflectiveness<br>in this season, this Winter season,<br><br>Nature is a great teacher and I love<br>listening to her sharing lessons about life<br>and death and rebirth, especially at this<br>winter season, where the trees take on the<br>barrenness of apparent death.<br><br>Indeed, life is a journey in discovering hidden truths.<br><br>I've always found it a blessing that stars shine<br>their brightest in the darkest nights.<br>And so it is, with our lives, oftentimes,<br>the darkest moments, the moments of despair,<br>the moments of feeling lost and confused,<br>can often be moments of grace, moments of intense<br>illumination where we re-discover ourselves, our goals,<br>our inspirations and the purpose for which we truly live.<br><br>It must have been a very dark night when<br>the brightest star shone for the 3 Magi, who<br>went in search of the infant King Jesus.<br>They must have been filled with thoughts of doubt<br>and despair, and yet hope must have warmed<br>their hearts as they travelled<br>all those nights in the barren desert,<br>eyes, turned heavenwards towards the star that<br>pointed the way to the infant Jesus.<br><br>They brought gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh,<br>but most importantly, they brought the gift<br>of themselves, and offered it to the infant Jesus.<br><br>Jesus says in John 17:24<br>"Father, they are your gift to me."<br><br>We are God the Father's gifts to Jesus.<br><br>Wow....I find that amazing. Especially when I think of the moments<br>when I've been weak, fragile, proud, hurt, selfish...<br>not the best type of gift at all.<br><br>Yet, we are Jesus's christmas presents.<br>The gift of ourselves, of our time, of our talents, of our being.<br>What type of gifts do we want to be?<br>What type of gifts are we to our families, to our friends?<br>What can we present to the infant Jesus when we reach the end<br>of this journey under the stars?<br><br>postscript :<br>[Indeed, in every mass that is celebrated in church,<br>the priest says in the Eucharistic prayer, "And so Father we bring you these gifts, we ask you to make them holy by the power of your spirit, that they may become the body and blood of your son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at whose command we celebrate this eucharist."<br><br>I never thought about it before, but we truly are bringing the gifts of ourselves to the Lord, and asking the Father to transform us into the mystical body of Christ. "so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually parts of one another" (Romans 12:5)]<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12852845-5927973819646388570?l=corrinnemay.blogspot.com" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" /></div><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/o2vJKkRestQ" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504592007-12-21T18:18:00-05:002024-03-22T04:17:31-04:00new ways of journeying<em>This is the full, un-edited version of the piece<br>on 'Globalisation' titled <a href="http://www.corrinnemay.com/html/press/vanilla-mag-world-piece-article-nov-07.pdf">'World Piece'</a> that I wrote for the Vanilla <br>Magazine in Nov. 2007.</em><br><br><br>"With a single life<br>I will not learn enough.<br><br>With the light of other lives,<br>many lives will live in my song." – Pablo Neruda<br><br><br>I was sitting at my usual table in the coffeehouse in Los Angeles the other day, when a couple, with their two young kids in tow and their grandparents, walked in. They all sat around, enjoying the afternoon, chatting in an Eastern European language I couldn’t understand as they drank tea and the grandparents smiled at their grandkids… and I thought about my own family, about my brother and sister-in-law and how, far away in Singapore, my own family was probably sitting somewhere having a meal together, enacting this same scene. And I didn’t need to understand the language to feel a kinship with this Eastern European family. <br><br>The more I see the world, the more I appreciate the things that bind us, beyond the superficial differences, beyond the lines drawn along the maps,<br>beyond the immigration questionnaires that are more keen to seek out differences and focus on the walls that separate us.<br><br>Strip away the accents, the differences in clothing, the demarcations, the lines, and one finds that we're not all that different after all. <br><br>One of my closest friends in L.A, Ann, is a 57 year old Caucasian woman who was born in the Midwest of the US. She is an American who has lived in Los Angeles for almost 30 years and due to unfortunate circumstances, is now wheelchair-bound and living on government support, in a one-bedroom apartment. I never thought we’d end up being good friends. After all, on first glance, it would seem that we don’t have much in common. But we were both in the church choir and so took the chance to start up a conversation, and over the course of many conversations about faith and about music, we became friends.<br><br>As a result of our friendship, I’ve learned to see the a different world through her eyes- The world of the handicapped. I see how tough it is for her to navigate the uneven sidewalks outside her house and the hazards she faces in contending with cars along the road that she travels in her motorized wheelchair. She’s been in and out of hospitals this past year, suffering one stroke after another, and yet every single time, she has rebound and pulled her life back together. I admire her for her strength and tenacity in life. She has shown immense courage in the face of almost insurmountable odds and she is a fighter. <br><br>Another friend I hold dear, Joe, lives out of his car. I used to notice Joe because he would sit in the middle of church, by himself, wearing crumpled clothes and sporting big bunches of cotton wool stuffed into his ears. (Later I found out it was because he thought the speakers in the church were too loud). He’d also have stacks of old newspaper stuffed in his car. But what really got me intrigued was the hand-painted pro-life message he had on his car bumper. It was a illustration of a foetus with the words ‘Let the little stinker live.’ <br><br>Then one day, Joe, comes up to me after Mass. “I really enjoyed your piano playing at mass. You should sing more too.” And from that point on, I would greet him with a wave whenever I saw him at mass, and he would wave back, and over the course of the next year, we built up a friendship over the bits and snippets of conversation we had after mass. I found out that Joe, in his own-way, was an anti-abortion activist. He would hand-make his own flyers and stand outside abortion clinics in protest every Sunday from 7.30 in the morning to 2 p.m. Quiet in his own way, lacking the resources to even have a proper home, he nonetheless, had found a worthwhile cause to be passionate about, and I loved the fact that he had shared that world with me.<br><br>I guess the only real rule for living in a increasingly global world is the willingness to step into another’s shoes, to see the world through their eyes. It doesn’t even have to be a geographical border that separates us. Sometimes, a new world is just within our neighbourhoods. We just have to look and be willing to go on a different kind of journey.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12852845-8036809631408765535?l=corrinnemay.blogspot.com" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" /></div><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/DH_TgaxdFqk" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne Maytag:www.corrinnemay.com,2005:Post/1504602007-12-20T20:02:00-05:002024-03-22T04:16:36-04:00November 10th 2007 - reflections...while sitting at Starbucks in Santa Monica,CASaturday, 10th November 2007, 9.15 p.m<br><br><br>A table opened up here at the Starbucks on 3rd Street, <br>in Santa Monica, so I figured I'd sit down and write. <br>Outside, people are streaming past, the tide of life washing by. <br>The homeless, with their heavy clothing and trollies of blankets <br>and plastic bags, pass by, mostly unnoticed <br>as girlfriends and boyfriends stroll by under the newly-strung <br>Christmas season lights.<br><br>The usual guitar duo playing a form of flamenco guitar is here<br>too as usual, blasting their melodic rhythms into the chilly<br>night air. I walk by, trying to blend seamlessly into the crowds,<br>like a shadow... and as I pass the streets, shoes, winter clothing, <br>all staring out of shop windows, cajoling people to part with their<br>cash, to either get new clothes, or put a tip into the plastic<br>bucket of a street performer, or the outstretched grimy palm<br>of a homeless man.<br><br>The homeless sit on the grilled metal benches, covered in blankets,<br>talking to their guardian angel who shivers along right with them.<br>The black man cajoling people to dance along to his boom-box music <br>is out here tonight as well as are the breakdancers, <br>and the homeless white man in a puffy-purple windbreaker holding up<br>a cardboard sign, chastising people in a fit of religious fervour.<br>As I sit here, I wonder about the story of the lady sitting at the table<br>next to me, dressed in a marshmallow black windbreaker, dragging a <br>suitcase, a perpetual traveller on life's journey.<br><br>We all carry suitcases...just that ours are not as visible.<br>Some of us hide our luggage and baggage in our hearts, under<br>our baseball caps, behind our smiles, or hidden behind sunglasses.<br>Aren't we all homeless in a sense? We're all here in exile till we<br>see His sweet face.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12852845-6216746913628485841?l=corrinnemay.blogspot.com" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" alt="" height="1" width="1" /></div><div class="feedflare">
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</div><img src="//feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CorrinnesMusings-ASinger-songwritersLife/~4/FOKByMo6D2w" class="size_orig justify_inline border_" height="1" width="1" />Corrinne May