Thursday, July 30, 2009

Oublier -- To Forget

I was lying on the beach today, lazily watching my kids play with their cousins in the placid Atlantic sea water, thinking about some kind of meditation quote or thought that I'd recently read in a meditation book. It was about remembering and forgetting and living in the moment. And in that moment I remembered that I was a French major in college (did I ever tell you that?) and that the word for to forget is oublier and then I started conjugating the word oublier -- j'oublie, etc. and then I remembered that I was a pastry chef, too, and this reverie of remembering and forgetting was all somehow wrapped up in the lazy, hot day and the pull of the water and fingerprint mark on my left shoulder where I'd forgotten to put sunscreen, a silhouette of forgotten skin. It occured to me then, or was it when I actually read the quote in the meditation book that I realized I actually have the instincts of a great meditator, one who lives in the moment but that I forget that. Each and every moment.



J'oublie.



I've forgotten.

how to remember.
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10 comments:

  1. MaryJuly 30, 2009 at 10:01 PM

    I've always thought vacation was good for remembering what you've forgotten...

    I hope the trip is going well (sounds like my family vacation!) and that it is respite for you, even if you miss Sophie and wish all the cousins and family could see her.

    (I was also a French major in college!)

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  2. ;)July 31, 2009 at 7:33 AM

    Un post comme un "koan" pour méditer... à ne pas oublier ;)

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  3. A.SmithJuly 31, 2009 at 11:55 AM

    Our nanny used to say that a good memory consisted of remembering only the good things...and not all the time. So your memory is good,
    just not all the time :)

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  4. GbergerJuly 31, 2009 at 8:15 PM

    Moi aussi. Toujours, j'oublie. XO

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  5. kate hopperAugust 1, 2009 at 7:27 PM

    God I love this.

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  6. jeneva22August 1, 2009 at 8:20 PM

    It's good to let go for a while. I hope the vacation continues to be relaxing and restorative.

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  7. adrienneAugust 2, 2009 at 6:21 PM

    xo

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  8. AnonymousAugust 6, 2009 at 6:18 AM

    Here's to hoping you remember more!

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  9. VardaJanuary 30, 2011 at 9:25 PM

    How nice to find you here at BlogGems today. I love the end line "I've forgotten how to remember." I think maybe that's one of the strongest pulls towards blogging for me, it's helping me remember how to remember.

    And all kinds of little things that I had forgotten are starting to float back up to the surface.

    Sometimes I forget to visit you, but not today. ;-)

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  10. whoJanuary 31, 2011 at 1:05 AM

    mayday mayday do you read me?

    mayday mayday, this is rainbow black, do you here me?

    the opposite. I am not trying ti nit pick your writing Elisabeth, you write very well, but if you missed a spot where you did not have suntan lotion, how would it be a finger print?

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