For this last post of the year, my mind is a scramble–une bousculade. As with the beginning of any essay, there are so many possible directions in which to set out. This is when a writer must hone in on a subject or, at the very least, un thème.
Because everything is bubbling up inside of me in a good and sunny way, it can't help but overflow onto this page. Whether this positive energy will last until lunchtime–or carry on through the end of the year–peu importe. What's essential is to go with it. If I had to sum up 2018, I would say flow of life is where it is (or was). This past year (the tears come as I type this) I have, once and for all, not fought the changes. Come what may are the words on my lips this morning, and these 3 words offer a willing and ready nod to the future.
QUOI QU'IL ARRIVE. Come what may, I will (live, advance, deal, love, hurt, heal). Come what may I will try hard to swallow my pride, forgive myself for missteps, hug the one who's rattling me. Sometimes I need rattling. I thank God those that rattle me also love me, forgive me, and practice short-term memory when it comes to offenses. I'm thinking of my Mom and my husband, two very strong characters whom I have struggled to live with in 2018. But if I have had a revelation in the past décennie, it is this: others struggle to live with me too!
So if you are like me, don't feel too bad about your idiosyncrasies. Continue to smooth them out in the coming year and, in the meantime, take heart in a famous writer's words: Qu'est-ce qu'un adulte? Un enfant gonflé d'âge.*
(An adult is only a child blown up by age!)
We still have our meltdowns, we still, as a little girl screamed in the park the other day (MAMAN! LES BRAS! LES BRAAAAS!), want to be carried when we can no longer soldier on. We are still goofy, awkward and inadequate–creative, silly, and sweet. We are snotty nosed brats and innocent as newborns (we don't know what is coming next and we are at the mercy of it).
All we need to do from here on out is to be considerate of others and gentle to ourselves. I wish you, Dear Reader, un bon bout d'an and I will see you here in the new year quoi qu'il arrive….
With lots and lots of love (oh, les larmes sont revenues!),
Kristi
FRENCH VOCABULARY
gonfler = to bore, exasperate, get on somebody's nerves
une bousculade = rush, scramble
un thème = theme
peu importe = whatever, it doesn't matter
quoi qu'il arrive = come what may, whatever happens
la décennie = decade
maman = mommy
les bras! = your arms (I want you to hold me!)
bon bout d'an! = Happy end of the year!
les larmes sont revenues = the tears have come back
*Simone de Beauvoir
Discover more from French Word-A-Day
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Bonne Annee Kristi, to you and your family. When I was 21 and a recent BA graduate from the U if Michigan, I got a bug to learn French. I had no reason to learn it, but I worked for six months and saved my earnings, and then I went to Paris where I studied French intensively for two semesters. Fifty years later I’m glad I did it, although French has never helped me at work. But it has enriched my life greatly and enabled me to meet many French speakers whom I would never have known. I’m fluent and I still speak French often. Occasionally I learn a word from your blog that I didn’t know, but mostly I follow you to enjoy a glimpse of what an Arizona girl’s life is like when transplanted to la terre Francaise. Thank you for continuing to share your adventures and family news online. Je te souhaite, aussi bien que ta famille entiere, une tres Bonne Annee 2019! —Ed Klinenberg, Palo Alto, CA
That is the most lovely way to end 2018! I love this post and your photos! Great shots of the sunrise, doves (they look like they’re waving good-bye to 2018), and you and the dog!
Happy belated birthday! (Same day as my brother’s!)
Hope you have a terrific 2019!
Happy 2019 Kristin!
May your year be filled with good health, happiness and many blessings!!!🎉
Diane
Happy New Year to you and your family from all the Accuardis.
Grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
Good advice for the New Year.
Sharing tears across the world and through the years
We clear our minds, release our fears
And lift our cups with gratitude and heartfelt cheers
Best wishes et merci beaucoup pour tous les annees
des histoires.!
Jan
Bonnie annee from San Francisco, Kristi! I will take your words of wisdom to heart and try to become a better me, all the while accepting who I am and rolling with the punches. 😇👍
LOVE the birds photo, and the one of you and your adorable pooch. Blessings to you and your family.
just curious–can’t “gonflé” also mean swollen? It didn’t show up in the vocab list.
Lovely message, full of hope and forgiveness for self and others.
Kristi,
This has made my eyes swell up with tears, and also brought a broad smile to my face. It’s life, isn’t it! Sometimes it, we, them are more generous, more thoughtful, more concerned, more worried, more unkind, more loving, more sad, more unhappy, more happy – true for us and “them.” Patience and love will carry the day for ourselves and for our loved ones! Bonne Annee to a wonderful, very real person who brings much to me and to all your loved ones and readers! Judi 😍
♥️
Our dear Kristi,
What wonderful words,wonderful thoughts to both end this year and begin the next.
Your insights give me hope for living my own life in a fuller,
more aware way.
Thank you,Kristi!
Happy New Year(Happy Every Day!) to you and your beautiful family.
Love
Natalia. XO
Bonne année
Life is about the choices we make and you have now made a very big one. To “Live, laugh and love”……it will take you very far in all the years to come. If one can remember to do this, it will make it easier to deal with the occasional problem. I look forward to another year reading about you and France. And by the way, how are the chickens doing?
Joie
Dear Kristy,
One of your best blogs ever. I truly appreciate your heartfelt words and courage to share your vulnerability. We are all interconnected and share the fact that we all suffer in some way.
May 2019 be blessed with health, peace and love for you and for all. ❤️
Wishing you all a most wonderful 2019! Thank you for bringing the joy of French and of your experiences to all of us.
Best always, Susan
Kristi, it is difficult to live with strong personalities! And you are such a sensitive person…But we love them and can’t live without them!..Hope to finally meet you in the coming year…
Reading this blog, I realized that I must be among the privileged few of your many readers who has met all the family members who bring you quoi qu’il arrive. Your husband, your mother and father, and your children, and our sister. Having visited you in three of your houses, I’ve known you for a long time and no something about quoi qui’ll arrive for you. With all those wonderful people in your family, the trend is definitely upward!
One of my very fond memories from 2018 will be sitting with you and Jean-Marc in the little cafe overlooking the beach at the end of a calanque eating mange-tout (la friture de Joels). I hope we both have many things like the come our way in 2019. Happy New Year.
type, I of course meant “your sister”
Bonne Année Kristi ! J’aime votre blog. Comme d’habitude mon premier objectif pour 2019 est (d’?)améliorer mon français. Merci beaucoup pour m’aider ! Bon courage.
Thank you, Kristi, for your heartfelt words and the raw emotions that come with those words. They bring courage and comfort to those of us who read them.
Wishing you and your family a peace and love filled new year!
Marcia
Beautiful!
Bonne année à toute la famille, Kristi … bonheur, santé, prospérité <3
Wonderful Kristi. I shared with my daughter with whom I have had a difficult relationship.
Happy New Year!
Meilleurs voeux pour le nouvel an à tout le monde!
Totally agree with you!! Happy New Year and lots of love to you and all your family.
Seems no matter how old and wise and seasoned we become, God And the universe give us “pop quizzes” just when we think we have reformed or changed. God is making sure we do not get too haughty and the pop quizzes remind us how much we have grown and how easy it is to react to one of the old “triggers” in our past. Sending you sincere love this day.
Salut Krist,
Bonne année et bonne santé pour la nouvelle année à vous!
Happy New Year Sweetie, The sad truth (also the happy truth)is that we have no choice but to live with whatever arrives….We just passed our third Christmas sans Jack, my treasured father….AND, why…WHY on this Christmas, did my beloved Mother-in-law, who has been stricken with the ugly disease of dementia, fail to recognize her sons for the very first time? Questions that have no reply….We shall survive because that’s what we do…I wish you all the best as the calendar page turns, and I send you the best advice I know: Make the best of whatever arrives. With LOVE, Eileen Burns
Thank you for sharing so much of yourself with us, Kristi! All the best for a wonderful 2019!
Merci,
Janine
What great self realization you have! If only more people could realize that none of us is perfect, we all have things about us that make us “difficult” to live with at times. Having compassion for ourselves and for others is a huge gift!
Happy New Year, thank you for opening your heart and home to all of us.
Bonne Année!
Amy
Dear Kristi,
What lovely words and inspirational and insightful thoughts so beautifully expressed. They brought me to tears. That you have come to this realization at this point in your life is so amazing. It took a major life altering event in 2017 for me to fully reach to this understanding. May you have the most wonderful New Year in 2019 and ever after…and enjoy the unconditional love that comes from your dear Smokey…
Kristin, You have the gifts of self- awareness, and kindness and generosity. Many strong personalities are inflexible- I wonder about the happiness they can achieve. I hope that you continue to find the good, and the beauty,in the everyday things which come your way- your gorgeous dog, flowers, nature, photography, food, your hospitality and your capacity for friendship and sharing. Your love for your family, and the way that you care for them all, shines through.
Bonne année. Enjoy the quiet times, and the good times.
Bonne année Kristi, JM, Jules and Smokey. May the new year bring Peace, Love, Joy and Hope. We all struggle trying to do the right thing,but many times fail, as we are not perfect. We can only keep the faith and hope that others will understand us, forgive us and continue to love us.
Peace, Kathleen
Bonne annee to you and your family, Kristi!
I would like to share what I learned recently at a mindfulness class. It comes from Metta Meditation or loving kindness meditation, a form of meditation in Buddhism:
May you be happy
May you be healthy
May you be safe
May you live at ease!
This I wish for you and all your readers.
Or one might put things this way, I think: “The beginning of wisdom is to be kind to yourself.”
Thank you, as always, for your grace and humor AND your sticktoitiveness that has brought us all so much pleasure over the years. Here’s to Kristi…and her family, too!
Kate in Vermont
Bonjour et Bonne Année, Kristi,
Vous êtes une honnête femme! Thank you for sharing the ups and downs of your life with so much candor. It is both refreshing and inspiring. I wish you and yours good health, happiness, and prosperity in the coming year.
– an adult is only a child blown up by age – that is so awesome.
Wishing you joy, love and peace in 2019. Give my love to Jules and a big hug to you all.
xoxo
Oh my goodness. You took those word right out of my mouth. I feel better knowing someone else,and for sure many others, have our struggles and demons. I’ll remember this blog in 2019 when days aget rough.
Joyeux Noël
Bonne Année; Kristi !!!
Je t’aime et Je t’adore. Your genuine nature is full of kindness, forgiveness, compassion, and most of all, love.
You have captured my heart.
Amour,
Randy
You and this blog are such a treasure. Exquisite photos! Such infinite wisdom from a most Divine child!
Happy New Year to everyone
with Love and Gratitude
Gonflé can also mean inflated. Le ballon est gonflé.
La vie est belle. Keep up the colorful writing, and Happy New Year–bonne annee!
I love the dove photo!!!
Your words and photos are a constant source of sunshine for me and for so many others. I always look forward to opening your essays while I quickly delete so much else
Thank you for the gift of you.
Happy new year.
Arlette from Bethesda Md.
Wishes for a Happy New Year dear Kristi, may it be filled with new adventures, peace and love…and thank you for your beautiful essays that always seem to arrive when they are most needed. – Susan
Happy New Year and all the best to you and Jean-Marc! Hope our paths cross again soon. Hugs!
Thank you and happy new year. I like the idea of starting the year out with a come what may attitude, (for myself I could add,) and a little grace.
Travel well.
Thank you, Kristi. Just the words I needed to hear and take with me today.
Happy New Year to you and all our family.
Such lovely thoughts and a beautiful message. The best of everything to you and yours, Kristi, in the coming year.
Wise words! May we all go through 2019 with more grace and peace than we have managed heretofore. Happy New Year.
I think about Bette Davis in the film “All About Eve,” when she said “Fasten your safety belts; it’s going to be a bumpy night!” Quoi qu’il arrive, we’ll weather it (2019) with a little bit of help from our friends, family, and FWD! Bonne annee a tous!