A Love-Filled Day in Paris
Last spring, I visited Paris for the first time. Oh, I could write another whole book on my passionate love affair with that delicious city! I felt drenched in beauty and love every moment I was there.
One delightfully rainy afternoon, I was sitting in a café sipping white wine and watching incredibly interesting people walk by. A ruggedly sexy French guy who was sitting behind me struck up a conversation.
“How long are you here for?” he asked in a scrumptious, raspy voice with an accent that could melt steel.
“Only a couple more days, but I’m really wishing it was longer!” I answered smiling, momentarily euphoric that he spoke to me. “You have a very special vibration about you,” he said. “What do you do?” Wow. A small reminder once again that energy is everything.
Something about his authentic, inquisitive tone told me he wasn’t really flirting; he was looking for a bit of company and interesting conversation. When I looked at his face again, I detected an underlying layer of genuine curiosity and sensed he’d been through many struggles in his days.
“I’m a life coach, writer, and speaker. I study and write about happiness.”
He paused thoughtfully for a few seconds. “Ahhh, life coach. You help people make a better life? To be happier?”
“Exactly!” I said with a laugh, pleased that he got it. “I love it, and I’m always learning myself.”
“We have life coaches here in France. But here I believe we call them seek analysts.”
Seek analyst! I loved it! I wasn’t entirely sure if that was accurate, but I was amused by the idea of the translation, and it certainly worked. Helping people to analyze, discover, and fulfill what they’re seeking. I’ll take it!
He thoughtfully sipped his Cabernet and then set his glass on the table deliberately. “You really have to love yourself to do that kind of work, no?”
This guy so gets it, I thought. I smiled and immediately answered, “Ohhhh, yeah. I spent the first thirty-two years of my life learning how to love myself, and the last ten helping others to do the same. It’s a daily practice.”
“Thirty-two years?” he said. “That’s a lot of study!” We laughed in unison.
I swear, sometimes the best conversations happen with perfect (sexy!) strangers in random places.
After a few more minutes of laughter and small talk, I bid au revoir to the hot Frenchman and spent much of the rest of that day thinking about self-love and how the lack of it in our world just might be our most underrated epidemic…
Want more? This is an excerpt from the book Operation Happiness: The 3-Step Plan to Creating a Life of Lasting Joy, Abundant Energy, and Radical Bliss by Kristi Ling (Rodale Books)
