The city of lights

Almost five years ago I embarked on my first international trip without my parents. "Where did I go?" you might ask, why the city of lights, of course. I was immediately awestruck by it's beauty, its culture, even its fashion; it was all so unexpectedly wonderful. When I left, the only thing that I wanted was to go back, only next time with those who I loved most.

Fast forward five years and I'm back where I started: the city of lights. Except this time, everything wasn't as beautiful as I had remembered it. This time people seemed more cold, the buildings more dirty, and the city not so bright and in fact, much more ordinary. Something had changed. However it wasn't the city itself, it was me - I was different.

This time in France I couldn't eat any of the pastries or crêpes or bread or pasta or... well you can imagine what the diet might look like for someone who cannot eat gluten. This time I was still without my loved ones. This time I didn't want to be there in the way that my sixteen-year-old self thought that I would. My expectations for this trip were not exactly high.

But I must not leave you hanging there, thinking that I was just depressed the whole time and moping about lost dreams or crushed expectations. No, there were in fact many unexpected blessings during my trip that in fact had nothing to do with the city and everything to do with whom I was with. I began to develop deeper relationships with my group, bond over shared experiences, and laugh more than I had in a long time. In spite of my low expectations, God came in and showed me that the richness of this trip was not to be found in such sights as the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre but rather in the beauty and complexity of people. And that, my friends, is what made Paris glow for me this time.

______________

Little by little I'm realizing that we never really arrive at these romanticized dreams that we have for our lives but rather when they do come, they are often spontaneous and unexpected. The beauty of life is that it is so daily. If it weren't so, we would take for granted those great moments when they come.

© Brooke Kathryn