I love the narrative stream of consciousness style, but love all forms of your writing and voice in general. I’ve recently moved from Toronto to Montreal, reading your beautifully captured moments of Paris also made me deeply feel. Merci 🤍
I really enjoyed your experience in words...I’ve spent around 8 years of my life overseas and I’ve had similar deep encounters with new cultures that made me see things missing in myself, that’s a great addition to life.
And at the end when you finally said to be like the French, I felt a literary thrill that you were able to bring the steam of conscious to a meaningful end statement (others might not have, nor is it expected)...in reflecting I realized that’s what the whole piece was saying in many different ways and so to state it clearly at the end was artistically satisfying to me.
I’ve had times when I’ve done this in my writing by accident but then I felt happy like maybe it was a good instinct built in by practice and that felt good. I wonder how you got the ending, was it a careful choice or just kind of came at the end of the flow?
Loved this style - I've written a few like this and call them 'vignettes' :)
The point about GDP being a poor measurement of a country is so true. I recently spent 40 days in Indonesia and it was so clear to me that the locals were much happier than Americans despite the fact that they made way, way less money and had a significantly lower standard of living. Makes you wonder if there's some new measurement we can use that combines happiness, economic output, and maybe a few other factors such as homelessness.
You are brilliant and those words were written to be savoured. Your ability to exist in presence will serve you well. Also, the people thinking you're one of them - it's an energetic thing in you.
loved this. thanks for sharing. you're making me realise how refreshing it is to read about your hometown from an 'outsider point of view'. I re-discovered why I'm still in love with Paris while reading you. even though, as french and a local, I so often felt the urge to leave this city (and indeed, I did leave).
it makes me want to write about the city I'm currently in.
"But I’ve always thought that entertaining more ideas than you’ll end up believing is better than entertaining so few that you don’t realize you have a say in what you believe."
yes! loved this passage and the stream of consciousness style. thank you. :)
Aside from copy and pasting. I intend to say you have no idea how much I savor your posts. They are full of wisdom. Wise Isabel let's be friends. I promise "I'm cool" and by cool I mean authentic. Sensitive. Hopeless romantic. Latina Isabella. French Isabelle. Isabel. What do you say?
There is a certain irony to that, isn’t there? That what we do to keep ourselves from suffering is what ultimately creates our suffering. That suffering comes from resisting what is. That by making ourselves more fluid, we can be in the moment, instead of tied up in our mind, fixated on what this moment “should be”. That by collapsing our expectations about how we should feel, we can finally relax—we can be like the French!
The passages about letting go of expectations and allowing oneself to be in the moment resonated a lot. I'm having a lot of trouble lately spending my (temporarily sizable) free time in ways I actually enjoy, rather than defaulting to scrolling. Your reflections here dovetailed really nicely with what has helped me the most, which is reminding myself that crafting my day perfectly is unrealistic and unnecessary. I can just follow random whims and I'll still have a 100x better experience.
I was also floored by this quote: "But I’ve always thought that entertaining more ideas than you’ll end up believing is better than entertaining so few that you don’t realize you have a say in what you believe." I have less to say - just that I'll definitely be thinking about it for a while.
"It’s amazing what is possible when we let go of the need to control everything, even for a moment. It’s like releasing a deep, guttural exhale."
amazing! just amazing indeed how surrendering and forgiving helps loosen up the knots in our mind. thank you for this amazing piece.
I love the narrative stream of consciousness style, but love all forms of your writing and voice in general. I’ve recently moved from Toronto to Montreal, reading your beautifully captured moments of Paris also made me deeply feel. Merci 🤍
I really enjoyed your experience in words...I’ve spent around 8 years of my life overseas and I’ve had similar deep encounters with new cultures that made me see things missing in myself, that’s a great addition to life.
And at the end when you finally said to be like the French, I felt a literary thrill that you were able to bring the steam of conscious to a meaningful end statement (others might not have, nor is it expected)...in reflecting I realized that’s what the whole piece was saying in many different ways and so to state it clearly at the end was artistically satisfying to me.
I’ve had times when I’ve done this in my writing by accident but then I felt happy like maybe it was a good instinct built in by practice and that felt good. I wonder how you got the ending, was it a careful choice or just kind of came at the end of the flow?
Thanks.
Loved this style - I've written a few like this and call them 'vignettes' :)
The point about GDP being a poor measurement of a country is so true. I recently spent 40 days in Indonesia and it was so clear to me that the locals were much happier than Americans despite the fact that they made way, way less money and had a significantly lower standard of living. Makes you wonder if there's some new measurement we can use that combines happiness, economic output, and maybe a few other factors such as homelessness.
You are brilliant and those words were written to be savoured. Your ability to exist in presence will serve you well. Also, the people thinking you're one of them - it's an energetic thing in you.
loved this. thanks for sharing. you're making me realise how refreshing it is to read about your hometown from an 'outsider point of view'. I re-discovered why I'm still in love with Paris while reading you. even though, as french and a local, I so often felt the urge to leave this city (and indeed, I did leave).
it makes me want to write about the city I'm currently in.
It takes a lot of skill to make writing look this effortless. Loved it, Isabel.
Such a beautiful read 🤍
Wow, I fell in love with Paris through your writing. Thank you for sharing, Isabel.
Absolutely loved this, you transported me to Paris. Thanks for sharing
"But I’ve always thought that entertaining more ideas than you’ll end up believing is better than entertaining so few that you don’t realize you have a say in what you believe."
yes! loved this passage and the stream of consciousness style. thank you. :)
Buying my Paris plane ticket after reading this
Loved this writing style. I felt so much of what you are describing, and it brings me back to time spent in Parisen cafes....
Thank you for this glimpse!
Aside from copy and pasting. I intend to say you have no idea how much I savor your posts. They are full of wisdom. Wise Isabel let's be friends. I promise "I'm cool" and by cool I mean authentic. Sensitive. Hopeless romantic. Latina Isabella. French Isabelle. Isabel. What do you say?
There is a certain irony to that, isn’t there? That what we do to keep ourselves from suffering is what ultimately creates our suffering. That suffering comes from resisting what is. That by making ourselves more fluid, we can be in the moment, instead of tied up in our mind, fixated on what this moment “should be”. That by collapsing our expectations about how we should feel, we can finally relax—we can be like the French!
I enjoyed this tremendously, thank you :)
The passages about letting go of expectations and allowing oneself to be in the moment resonated a lot. I'm having a lot of trouble lately spending my (temporarily sizable) free time in ways I actually enjoy, rather than defaulting to scrolling. Your reflections here dovetailed really nicely with what has helped me the most, which is reminding myself that crafting my day perfectly is unrealistic and unnecessary. I can just follow random whims and I'll still have a 100x better experience.
I was also floored by this quote: "But I’ve always thought that entertaining more ideas than you’ll end up believing is better than entertaining so few that you don’t realize you have a say in what you believe." I have less to say - just that I'll definitely be thinking about it for a while.