At the Edge of All You Are

                                   ..La Ville-Lumière"...Paris, the City of Light,..


It was springtime and I was standing, mesmerized beneath the Eiffel Tower. I marveled at the beauty all around, the dazzling city lights , the culture, the languages. I had often dreamed of such a time, and here I was...soaking up the moments in the city of light and love....


As I stood there with a couple friends from work, all I really wanted,...was to share that moment with my husband, or my mother, or my sister or at least a good friend...
yet, there we were...three girls, in one of the most romantic places in the world, chatting happily about, when and where we had met our husbands, who were worlds away... 


When you are someplace so far away...it seems to matter less where you are, and seems to matter so much more,..that you are there without that someone special...


It is absolutely amazing to travel as I have...but, I have come to realize...
that no matter how far you go, the best part about leaving, is getting to come home.


Some of us have never traveled beyond our home state, while others like myself have lost count of the many places and faces that have swept before us.


So the next time...you find yourself thinking that surely, you have missed out on something...
remember...that special someone or the distant memory that is tucked within your heart....
thank God for it...for there really isn't any better place to be.


And thank Him, especially, that within each of us He has created a space that only His Love can fill...
It doesn't really matter if you are standing on the edge of the River Seine or under a shade tree in your back yard....

When you reach the end of yourself, you realize that is where you are.
And at the very edge of all you are...
lies the beginning of discovering the very One who made you.

At some point, I think we've all been a little bit like Dorothy when she traveled the yellow brick road...we were quite certain that out there somewhere...was where all of our dreams would come true...
only to find out, that all that ever really mattered, 
was as close as the memories of another time,...beneath the Eiffel Tower.




Photography: courtesy of mackesey photos