Today I am hugging the Summer with Golden Goodbye from my heart. My Summer is Sandy Goddess in a sparkling sandy dress with oceanic breathing and pine trees perfume. Her name is la Duna du Pilat. She is a French woman with unforgettable charm.
La Duna du Pilat is the tallest sand dune in Europe. It is located in La Teste-de-Buch in the Arcachon Bay area, France, 60 km from Bordeaux. I am blessed by touching her sandy sparkling dress and feeling her waves.
La Dune du Pilat has a volume of about 60,000,000 m³, measuring around 500 m wide from east to west and 2.7 km in length from north to south. Its height is currently 110 meters above sea level. She is an impressive and gigantic.
La Duna is my Summer Sandy Mother
I am her happy smiling child,
I love her bright and clear colors,
I am drawing with her face and eyes.
She is a miracle – a granule of sand
Embracing the eternity of life
Where all times are waiving, flying
As a butterflies of delta planes.
La Duna is a French woman,
Her charming smile is promising a gift.
The Arcachon’s Golden Candy she presents
For all of us – I have brought it to you!
Unwrap the candy and enjoy the gift you are blessed by the Summer.
La Duna is my Summer Goddess and wavering my Golden Goodbye to her is a little sad. But with her help I understand the impermanence of all things. I write to her a secret message in the sand, Atlantic Ocean carries my words to all of us, whispering to your ears “I Love You!”
Thank You for Your Inspiration for Auguste Bartholdi to create the statue “Liberty Enlightening the World” best known as The Statue of Liberty.
A lot of her beautiful daughters, a replicas of the Statue, enlighten the World. Today I am happy to introduce you with the youngest French one, Mademoiselle Liberté. She is the quarter-scale replica of the Statue of Liberty which was installed in 2004 to commemorate the centennial of the passing of Auguste Bartholdi in the northern entrance in Colmar, Alsace, France, the hometown of the sculptor.
Walking in Colmar, enjoying French air and French coffee, singing French songs, Mademoiselle Liberté has told me a story of creation of her grandmother Madame Liberté, the statue “Liberty Enlightening the World”.
As any masterpiece The Statue of Bartholdi was born with her unique Destiny. Two blissful kisses from Universe blessed her.
The first kiss had gifted the East guiding star to the creator.
Auguste Bartholdi, when he was 21 y.o. and still finding his Way traveled in Yemen and Egypt with his friend painter Jean-Léon Gérôme. This eight-month trip was life changing and young Bartholdi had found his Way with the promising guiding Star – power and inspiration in monumental art of Ancient Egypt and colossal sculpture.
At this very time, when The Statue was born on the paper, by the law of Universe synchronicity, French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps was gripped by a project of pharaonic proportions: the future construction of the Suez Canal. With support from Ferdinand de Lesseps, Bartholdi offered his creation to the Egypytian authorities in 1869, but to no avail.
We all are lucky that Suez Canal was not destined place for Madame Liberté. She had dreams about the United States.
The second kiss was the happy event in 1865.
In a luxurious Parisian restaurant with excellent food and wine from Chateau Margaux monsieur Edouard de Laboulaye with his liberal friends including Auguste Bartholdi had enjoyed the dinner. Monsieur de Laboulaye was great admirer of the United States. With cheerful toasts and happy wishes the idea was raised of making a gift from France to celebrate the centenary of American independence which was coming up in 1876!
Bartholdi won over the other participants with a plan for a monumental statue symbolising the freedom. As soon as he arrived in New York harbour, he noticed Bedloe’s Island and was immediately sure that he had found the perfect spot for his statue.
The dream of Madame Liberté had come true. She was going to live in the United States!
Built in Paris and packed into over 200 carefully identified crates Madame Liberté left Rouen on 21 May 1885 on board the frigate Isère.
We are all have our unique Destiny and we are all blissfully kissed by Universe. I am so grateful for this very moment sharing Mademoiselle Liberté’s story of her American grandmother Madame Liberté.
Thank you for your eyes, your happy smile, your happy voice singing French song. You are my Inspiration.
Thank You for this very moment when I have a happy possibility to write to you a story feeling your light breath and beautiful eyes. Your heart is beating with mine in unison – we live and have a miraculous life!
Just as a life is made of days, so are days made of moments. There are a thousand tiny miracles that punctuate our days. Flora Forager has blessed my today by her beautiful art and I am here to bless yours.
The prince August is on his galloping horse. He is in love, he is in hurry to save her. The prince are kissing his princess…
“Wake up, my Princess! Wake up, Glorialana! I am the prince. My name is August. You were enchanted by evil Baba Yaga. My younger brothers, the prince June and the prince July, were not strong enough to awake you. My kiss is awaking. My love is true.
I am here to take you to Paris on the wings of love.”
“Est-ce vous, mon prince? Vous vous êtes bien fait attendre – Are you my prince? You’ve kept me waiting a long time” the princess said.
The prince August charmed by her words… He knows how to express his joy. He promises happiness in every moment!
This summer rain
I am bringing to you
Tender petals of drops
Kissing your lips.
We are riding a bike,
We are flying on our own.
We are singing with the wind
Dancing on our happy faces.
We have ice cream,
The best in Paris
Bubble-gum pink,
It is sweet and yummy.
Tea pot is on,
The cups are waiting,
Mint flavor is refreshing
Nightgale sings, the moment is perfect.
I wake up and celebrate the moment! Thank you, the prince August for your magical kiss.
A life well lived is firmly planted in the sweet soil of moments. The prince August have kissed our lips and his touch promises happiness. We need just unwrap his hidden treasures by open a simple moment.
Thank You for the 1st day of April. I invite you to celebrate today in charming French custom concerning this holiday.
The story goes that in 1564, King Charles IX of France passed the Edict of Roussillon, decreeing that henceforth the year would begin on January 1, instead of April 1. But some people failed to hear about the change and continued to celebrate the New Year on April 1. Therefore, people played pranks on them, making them April fools.
In France the fish is the primary symbol of April Fool’s Day. The association with fish is a bit enigmatic, but likely has its origin in the plentitude of young and easy-to-capture fish found in their rivers in April.
During that time, the 1st of April coincided with the end of Lent when the Church forbade Christians to eat meat. Fish was tolerated and was often used in the offering of gifts for the New Year.
Ha, ha, ha “April Fish!” I have tagged a paper fish on your back and we are happily laughing with French children and adults who are tricking each other in the same way.
Undrinkable juice I have prepared by adding gelatine,
I caramelised an onions instead of an apples,
I added green colour in the pack of milk,
Today is April Fish Day! Let’s celebrate!
You know to see happy laughing eyes of my family and friends is the greatest happiness I can imagine and wish for myself and for you!
I invite you to share our today’s laughing by watching The Cat Concerto. Jerry is the Master of a pranks!
Thank You for Strength to deep the Faith in Humanity.
Just a day ago the first post of 2015 was planned as a cheerful publication with happy hope to realise a list of the New Year resolutions. Yesterday I with my family celebrated orthodox Christmas…
Yesterday 12 Parisians had their own plan.
Today 12 burning candles are in this post…
As a Political Science post graduate student I had researched a myth based on “The Clash of Civilisation” by Samuel Huntington. “The principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilisations.” “The world will be shaped in large measure by the interactions among seven or eight major civilizations. These include Western, Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin American and possibly African civilisation” the scientist writes.
According to the theory “Islam” is a monolithic force, which is hostile to the West due to wounded pride and deep feelings of inadequacy. “Islam” is also expansionist and prone to violence. “Islam has bloody borders” is Huntington’s most famous statement.
The dangerous simplicity of the theory is in the clear understanding who is evil. But we know that distinct “civilisational” boundaries do not exist in the present day. The fact that many Islamic extremists spent a significant amount of time living or studying in the Western world proves that the evil is own “West” child.
I believe in Humanity. Behind a definitions “Islam” or “West” living people stand. Centuries ago Confucius defined humanity as a “love of people” stating “if you want to make a stand, help others make a stand.” This golden rule should become building principle of the world.
Strengths of Humanity are Love, Kindness and Social Intelligence. Love people, be kind, and be able to act wisely in human relations – in my opinion the formula of human happiness is here. It is so simple. But unfortunately the realisation of it in 2015 is almost unreachable on the policy and society’s level.
There is a way on the personal level. In concept with this realisation, we can pay finer attention to two crucial questions: “How deeply do I care about our common future? How do I actually make a positive difference?”
Mahatma Gandhi answers “You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty”.
The first number in my New Year resolutions is to follow human happiness formula “Love people, be kind, and be able to act wisely in human relations”. I hope my number one reflects in your list. Than by light speed our number one will become the first in every human heart and we shall stop war.
A minute of silence is for 12 brave Parisians.
The bells of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris toll.
We mourn and remember the lesson of the beginning of 2015.
Thank You for 2014 Candies we have enjoyed every days of our wonderful 2014 year! Traditionally every New Year begins from a big-big jar of candies under Christmas tree every chid and adult on our planet find. Let me open my own jar of candies and share it with you with my warmest New Year congratulations!
Roberto Bernardi visualises my jar of candies in a very beautiful way, please enjoy.
Linda’s questions are simple but its deepness opens when I begin to think…
Which lessons did you learn?
I think, I am good in learning a lessons, especially when I am expecting excellent mark, unfortunately.
My 2014 lesson was to learn not to expect a marks, any marks from people. Painful memories of a little school girl scared by her mother’s crying about “bad” marks are gone. “Am I good enough? Am I good mother, wife, sister, friend and ect?” leads to deadly dangerous doubt “Am I good enough for living at all?”
My inner child desperately needs healing from a fear to disappoint somebody and this horror dependency from “bad” marks. Our healing path is going to be long, we will eat 2015 candies together.
How did you serve others?
Oh, you know, I live in a social environment where a worries, a troubles and an emotions about these troubles are important part of culture in my country. We are again in our usual economic “crisis”. “What are we going to do? How are we going to live?” my friend is exclaiming in Blackglama mink coat, the price of it equals an annual budget of a small African country. By the way mink coat is an important part of our culture too. “Ruble is unstable. Dollars and Euros are rising. Sanctions are unbearable!” – this kaleidoscope of complaints and false fears is in the air now.
I meet my people with my warmest smile and hug. Every forth family in my country has a dacha where vegetables and fruits, even meat, grow. The most people here have never seen and tried “French cheese” they are “suffered” by its absence. “French cheese” is in a wide sense, meaning gourmet delicacies.
I do hope I serve my people to see beautiful truth about changes, changing inside comes first. I wish I could turn their complaints in a precious energy for supporting each other.
What blessings did you receive?
My personal blessings are deal with our crisis. The time to change my Lewis jeans with the North Face down coat uniform is coming. An ensemble of a maxi plaid linen skirt with a shearling lamb jacket in a folk style is going to play a hymn to my femininity in supporting my people’s loving hands.
Did you receive any “gifts” in terms of powers or skills?
Sadly I accept some people are suffered by the crisis. My greatest gift 2014 has presented is in my power to help an orphans and an old people by clothing and food. Even kind smile has power to enlighten a crying child’s face. I love to see smiles in return when I help, and I have even to hide my tears of happiness my heart expresses.
I have Power to keep my own family happy – sometimes a grey mood of our environment touches my darling people. Fire optimism and endless belief in a future happy changes are fundamental stones of my Power and main candies of 2015.
Was there something you lost that turned out to be a blessing in disguise?
Yes, due to absence of gourmet delicacies I lost 19 lb. ha, ha, ha! Could I imagine myself so young, slim and beautiful a year ago? It is a joke about gourmet delicacies. I tell you my secret – my diet is sugar free! It was hard way with the severe wind of cake’s temptation and frosty breathing of yogurt mousse with strawberry sauce… Thank you, crisis, for forbidden French macaroons.
Happily overwhelmed by the choices in a sweet Universe candy shop I have chosen a dancing and singing candies for 2015. Hardly believe? Please meet the Sugarplum Fairy!
Thank You, 2014, for happy changes I am in progress. Thank you, Linda for the challenge! The next participant of 2014 Wrap-Up challenge: Present Your Gifts is Shelley.
Thank you, my dear readers and followers, for being in my life, for great inspiration you always so generously present, for this very, very happy moment we share together on New Year eve!
Thank You for Inspiration to create and build lighthouses. I am incredibly happy to have a beautiful possibility to touch Your Inspiration, You had granted a young sailor Mathieu.
We are walking around a very beautiful and romantic place in the town Plougonvelin. This is the westernmost point of mainland France.
The lighthouse Saint-Mathieu has fascinated us and captured our imagination…
Lighthouses are not just stone, brick, metal, and glass. There’s a human story at every lighthouse. A Human Fate speaks by lighthouse’s rays.
Born at the sea
with big brave heart,
I am a happy young sailor,
My name is Mathieu.
This story is simple
It is about the Light.
My Destiny is
To keep It in my lamp.
It is all very romantic – a lighthouse standing by the sea to guide home the weary sailor, and the lighthouse keeper with the lantern, trimming the wicks and keeping a solitary watch for a ship in trouble. Fog, storms, shipwrecks, rescues – what an adventure lighthouse keeping!
The boat was small
But our hearts were big!
The ship began to move slowly along
The wing blew it…
In 1250, the Benedictine monks in Saint Mathieu hung a lantern on the top of a tower to guide ships on the Iroise Sea. The abbey was built in several stages from the Romanesque period (11th and 12th century) to the Gothic (from the 13th to the 15th century).
It was the worst storm ever,
Father of all storms.
But in the very midst of it,
When the wind was highest ,
The waves were strongest,
When the foam and the spray
Completely covered ship windows
I had seen the Light!
Being lost at sea in the dark is a matter of life and death. Near this megalith old Benedictine monk Mathieu had been praying for protection of every ship on the Atlantic for whole his life.
The sea as black as ink
Roaring and thundering on the rocky shores,
I could feel much too clearly,
The grasp of the swirling darkness below.
I had seen the Light –
We would survive!
Kneeling I prayed for protection –
“The light of God surrounds us,
The love of God enfolds us,
The power of God protects us!”
I closed my eyes…
And opened its on the shore.
We all were saved by the Light!
Mathieu’s lamp is very big now. It helps sailors in their navigation: by lining up with white rays, they know they are headed in the right direction.
– white: route to follow
– red: danger
– green: isolated danger.
Night by night as soon as it begin to grow dark Mathieu’s lamps are lighted. And as the ships go by, they always keep a look-out for friendly lights and avoid the rocks of which they are warned.
You know I am feeling a clumsiness of my words, Chopin helps me describe my thoughts more precisely about the Light Mathieu saw in his Etude “Ocean”. This is miraculous, exquisite and phenomenal. You will feel the roaring waves in a series of rising and falling arpeggios and you will see the Light. You will be eyes of Mathieu.
We all are keeping the Light in our lamps. We are a lighthouses.
Thank you for sharing your light. I know the way because of you!
Thank You for Your multiple blessings my life is fulfilled by. Happiness is writing the words now. Gratefulness is singing “Thank You!” to my beautiful friends.
I was offline for a while due to reconstruction of our apartment and I was thinking about my WordPress home every day. So I am at home and I love the awards I have been nominated for:
They have nominated me for the Awards. Their worlds are amazing. I am the happiest person on the planet because of this possibility to be a part and touch their Universes. Thank You!
I allowed to myself to gather the nominations in a set I called the Perfect Set. The Perfect Tea Set for a dolls we see above. Beautiful and fragile porcelain promises a good tea party in a very good company. Let’s have a tea party!
Sip by sip we are enjoying and sharing our ideas, views, stories and , in contrary of the words of Henry Fielding “Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea”, our sugar is Love, Kindness, Joy and Compassion. Please take a cake from the French cafe I have been in recently and taken these photos.
The Perfect Set of Awards and the invitation to join to our tea party with French cakes go to my friends from:
A really beautiful Soul have created a “Loving Recipe for a Perfect Cup of Tea.
1 Willing friend who loves to sit and share
1 Grateful heart to have a friend that cares
1 Beautiful garden to show us God is near
Plus Many wonderful memories of times shared throughout the years
Lots of smiles and laughter to brighten up our days
Many prayers that we prayed for each other along the way.”
The recipe is perfect, we know it now. Thank You for your company. I am really happy to sip from my Perfect Cup of Tea with you!
Glorialana Magazine 