Journal
A Bit of where I am at
About a Sour Cherry Tart, a Coat that Came Undone & November Winds
To follow, a story I feel compelled to write & share with all of you.
It is the tale of a dream about a sour cherry tart, the image of a coat that came undone & the November winds colliding together and how it all helped me make sense of my new reality.
And more importantly, amidst the absolute collective mayhem we are in, connect it with the broader reality.
Normal Injustice
A few days before the world officially collapsed, I was talking to a friend who works for a big corporation.
As the conversation rolled onto politics, he expressed his wishes for the fall 2020: normalcy.
He just wanted (and I am sure even more so now) to go back to normal:
When I pressed him to define what was “normal” for him, he exploded: “Well Catherine, just normal! I want a normal president like Bush, Clinton or Obama! I want everything to just go back to what we had, a normal president, normal news, normal injustice!
Everything is too much right now”.
How I Snapped out of my Food Coma
The deep connection that I have now with food has evolved over the course of the years.
It has not been as linear as one would think.
Looking back, it is truly with the birth of my 1st child that I reclaimed my ancestral relationship with food & started feeding myself & those around me, at home & in my businesses with my guts, and not with my brain.
The Blue Arrow
“What is next for you, Catherine, now?”
It is the opening night of Maison May.
Susan, a neighbor, is planted right in front of me.
I can only smile, I am too tired to cry.
“What’s next? Well, growing that new business. And then after, I don’t know yet”.
People like success stories that are fast & furious.
Real life has a different pace.
When at last I was able to ask myself that question, a new paradigm emerged.
On Raising Boys, Growing a Vision & Harvesting
In the spring 2008, I took a sharp turn. It involved first & foremost, to pick up my children & run from home in order for us all to be safe, physically & emotionally. I will of course never forget that day. Its color, its texture: it was bright red &...
On Entrepreneur’s Responsibilities
May always brings up a whirlwind of emotions for me:
It is my (re-)BirthDay & this year, Maison May turned 1.
As I am pausing to celebrate & reflect on that 1st year, I gathered a few friends & regulars and as I am standing in front of them a story came up, words unexpectedly poured out of me & before I knew it, I was describing what modern entrepreneurship should be.
A Decade Later – What I own.
A few weeks ago a friend suggested that I write about the year that was coming to an end- she felt, rightfully so, that I needed to pause before I would leap again.
Yet in trying to do so, my writing felt ineluctably vain & empty:
I had accomplished so much and worked more than ever, yet, nothing felt quite worth writing about.
And I could not figure out why.
Then December 30th came.
An email hit my inbox that day which made me pause & look back to 10 years earlier.
Only then did it all made sense:
I was not wrapping up a year but a decade.
Fall Survival Kit – Return to Basics
Fall is the hardest stretch for me, always.
The transition into cold weather & the march towards shorter days & the holidays always put me breathless, not to say most of the time spinning.
And this year is no exception with the intense violence spread in the news everyday (national & international), and the transition from running 2 restaurants instead of 1…
Yet, this time around, I’ve never felt more energized.
Probably because more than ever, I grounded myself & went back to the essentials.
Here are my basics, and how I draw energy, whether it be in work, a run at the park or a glass of red wine..