Leçons

Photo by Ashley Miller

Leçons (Fr.)/ Lessons (Eng.) Noun

• A useful piece of practical wisdom acquired by exerience or study. 
• An instructive example
• A section into which a course of study is divided, especially a single, continuous session or formal instruction in a subject.

It's official, I live in Paris, if only for a year. Although it has only been seven days, 4 of which have been spent in bed battling a cold, and 2 spent babysitting a 3-year-old French boy, and one at the Pompidou Museum,  I have already acquired some indispensible lessons.

Leçons: part une

• Babysitting multiple 3-year-olds in an English speaking environment is considerably easier than babysitting one 3-year-old in a French speaking country.
• Weigh your produce and print out their respective barcode stickers PRIOR to getting into the check out line at the market.
• Never cross the crosswalk when the "petite homme rouge" is still lit.
• Don't wait until your funeral to find out what people thought about you, just move to France.
• No matter how uncomfortable a situation is, it will always get better.
• Practice kindness whenever possible, it is always possible.
• The best way to prevent facial wrinkles from deepening, is to practice smiling with your forehead.
• Vous-vous the grouchy neighbor, tu will only make it worse.
• Charm trumps intelligence.

Lessons

Life is a series of lessons presented to us until we arrive at our destiny. I believe that our destiny is part of a collective, universal wisdom and energy field.

There are no mistakes, only lessons. Our development towards wisdom is a process of experimentation, trial and error, so it's inevitable things will not always go to plan or turn out how you'd want.

Lessons will be repeated until they are learned.

Learning does not end. While you are alive there are always lessons to be learned.