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We are guaranteed not to starve

This prolongation of our summer season, with temperatures well above 30C again in the upcoming week, is slowly but surely turning Les Pierre’s kitchen table into a poster board for profusion, staring at us with a persuasive promise of boon and bonus, if only we could get around to speed up the processing and preservation. To find ourselves in the midst of the pandemic, with all kinds of unforeseen perils ahead, only adds to the solicitousness we will need it all, so better not let anything go to waste.

This slight anxiety is obviously born from our yearned lifestyle rather than any new reality: however threatening the virus, we are guaranteed not to starve.
‘Opportunities are no obligations’ is what I tell myself to keep calm, to quell any overdrive before it evolves, not singularly satisfactory but very much imperative to keep reminding myself that we didn’t design these good intentions to cause stress or strain.
We have made this conscious choice to focus more on being guided by consistent principles and plans rather than exploit accidental circumstances in order to gain immediate advantage, to become less of the opportunists we recognized in ourselves in a previous attempt to live the good life in rural France.

Ivory is a big help for me in that department, always emphasizing I don’t have to do anything, unless I’m motivated enough myself and really want to. This kind of circular reasoning I’m very familiar with, raised by a mother who taught me to always exploit my talents by saying “You must do what you can and what you can do, you must”.
There is no escape from the wisdom of these words, yet the correlation between action and motivation has been an intricate enigma all my life. For the longest time I embraced the fallacy that I needed to be motivated in order to do something, anything, wasting precious time soul searching for it, only leading to procrastination and defeat.

Daily life at Les Pierres is showing me a different side to this misconception of reason in that it’s often the action that triggers motivation. It’s going to be hot today, but all I’m going to occupy myself with is fruit, veggies and nuts with our name on it. I only have to start.


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