Find your France

This post has been a long time coming but better late than never.  Here's the back story:
For as long as I can remember I have loved France.  Don't know why, just always had a connection to it.  It always held this allure, like it's where my heart wants to be.  I've never wanted to see the Eifel Tower or even the museums, I just want to go there and drink coffee. That's it. That's my french fantasy.  To sit at a cafe, drink coffee, eat bread and breathe.  And so when I get stressed or overwhelmed I have 3 thoughts that calm me down and one of them is of being at a cafe in Paris.  My favorite painting is Van Gogh's Café Terrace at Night, I've had a print of it hanging behind my door since high school so that only I could see it, it embodies everything I see in my head.  Moving on.  When I was back home for the week I was so anxious and I couldn't find a place to calm down until eventually I wandered to one of my favorite coffee shops in Davis and as soon as I sat down outside my soul settled.  I took a picture to remind myself of the feeling (which I do often) and as soon as I looked at it I realized it's like my own version of Cafe Terrace.  And so began my pursuit to "Find my France".  Not to say France isn't still my France because I will be going there, several times in my lifetime without a doubt, but to find that same kind of joy in every day occurrences.  Even if the feeling is brief, embrace it.  We get so caught up chasing down that ultimate goal that we bypass all the little joys that help to make those big moments that much greater.  I came across that Emerson quote, "we are always getting ready to live, but never living" and it has struck me as especially true at this moment in my life.  I got so caught up in having to get things done by a certain age to keep up with "normalcy" that I was letting so much good pass me by.  We work so hard and sacrifice so much to reach that ONE thing that will change our lives and make us so happy only to find once we have it, it wasn't what we expected.  Deeba posted THIS video which I feel like really sums it all up.  But I digress. Find your France, soak up all the little moments, go on all the little adventures you can, take pictures of everything because when you're older you don't want look back at all the time you wasted with your tunnel vision.

My little bits of France

Fun art that speaks to my heart by one of my favorite Etsy shops, Little Canoe

Being able to walk to this every day

When I have water in my favorite glass and it smells like strawberries

Morning coffee walks with my Mr.

Good coffee and lemon bars while having grown up conversations with my baby sister

Watching my plants grow from seeds

Having a beautiful man play the guitar for me while I blog

The moral of it all is have a dream, an unshakable one and work towards it, but don't lose sight of how wonderful life is along the way.