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.

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”.

“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.

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 &...

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..

In a few days, I will open the doors of my 2nd business.
All at once it will be a beginning, an end, an expansion, a continuation, and a true manifestation of what I have been marching towards.
It has been quite a journey.
Here is what has been happening.

I think we’d all like to think ourselves as more than just the sum of our parts. Take me, for example: you could label me as just a female entrepreneur, or a (single) mother, or a restaurateur. I’m French, I’m a New Yorker. But to me, all of those things are so deeply intertwined to make me, you can’t think about one without the other. If I’m just a female entrepreneur, I’m a bitch. Just seen as French, oh, oui, oui, we get it. A single mother first and foremost? It’s oh, poor you.
It’s taken me a long time to realize who I am as a whole, and to free myself from living solely toward others’ or my own, expectations based on any one part of who I am.