It's Christmas.

Nice, France

Hard to believe but tomorrow is Christmas.  The day after I came home from Thailand, we had a rainstorm and then the day after came a severe wind.  The result of all this was the falling of a hundred year old Oak tree from up on a hill down the street from our house.  

It happened at 10am but luckily no one was injured.  A roof was taken out and two cars were badly smashed and the telephone pole was down for 24 hours but then power was quickly restored by the local power company, EDF before all the food could spoil in refrigerators up and down the street.   

Yesterday I went out to see all the last minute shoppers but didn't really indulge in shopping except to stock up on candles and charge up my devices at a local coffee shop. There was a bit of sparkle in the air but that frantic last minute desperation also. 

Today though was such a wonderful crisp, glorious day that I went out to sit for half an hour at the sea before I went to the hairdresser.   There was a woman in her sixties, swimming for a long time and then emerging in her bikini to her waiting husband who wrapped her in a towel.  I had just been swimming a few days before in the warm waters of Koh Samet, Thailand and was amazed at her stamina.  

I saw and heard little hints of Thailand today too...  a piece of banana left on a wall, some crazy Asian music coming from the device of a Chinese girl who passed, pineapples lined up in the market.  

I am starting to open the Christmas cards that loved ones have sent and feel that Christmas connection that all of us long for.   But since we won't have visitors this year, I want to take in every little bit of perfection I see around me and make that my celebration with my husband.  

Wherever you are, I hope you feel the same, a sort of gratitude that the world is still beautiful, that people are still kind.  

At the hairdresser a French woman, a stranger, approached me to tell me that her name was also Payne, that her husband was English. They must have told her my name at the desk.  We had a graceful moment of sharing....completely unexpected.    And Mina, my little coiffeuse from Reunion, so lovely in her red sweater and festive shoes, made me look like Anna Wintour with the perfect bob.  I left with a head full of the Christmas spirit.

 It was good to be far away with my brother in Thailand and learn so much but it is good to be home again too. 

 I am wishing for you today the calm and quiet joy that comes from being content , planted as you are.  Have a joyful holiday wherever you are.