Or...it takes a village.
Remi has been gone for the past week and so I have been holding down the fort by myself along with the puppers. Except that I haven't been alone and certainly not lonely.
For while, when I lived in Paris or Arles and this same situation would occur, I would initially be showered with various invitations that would only be followed up with unapologetic "So how did your week(s) go?" afterwards. Not so in this tiny Provençal village.
Here, I was immediately invited over to a lovely tea in a jasmine lined courtyard, given rides to public transportation so that I could get to two of my guided walks, taken to a resplendent flower show and spoiled with a very fine lunch of pastilla and fresh mint tea. All of it in great company.
The relatively few people that I know took the task of making sure that I was well quite seriously and yet did it with such gracious ease that I never felt like I was being a burden. It made me feel a part of this little community as did my daily salutations from my fellow gardeners. When you have moved around as much as I have in life, that is not a little feat.
And yet I was left wondering...Isn't this how it should always be? Or has such consideration fallen widely into the derogatory sense of "old-fashioned"? I have a hunch that it comes down to a question of time - which tends to swing slowly in these parts - and priorities.
Regardless, I am left holding one certainty in the palm of my hand. It is carved with the word "kindness" and yes, that is something that is most certainly better than bijoux.
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone. May wonderful things bloom for you...
PS. I hope that those of you who left comments on my previous post will pardon my not responding individually as I usually do. The Mistral winds finally stopped after 16 days straight - sixteen days of howling winds! In May! Unheard of! - and so I have been lured away from the computer screen to play outside once again. My head still feels as though it is comprised of a big bag of rolling marbles!