Fertile Ground Ahead

French Antique Chocolate Cup

 

A New Year.

Last night around the dinner table, full of friends and family, we were happy. We laughed, ate, drank, shared stories, welcoming the New Year in together.

I sat next to our friend who many of you prayed for this year… our friend who tried to commit suicide unsuccessfully. Several months have passed since that awful day. Yet not a single day has passed were we, French Husband and I, haven’t held him close in thought, and action.

He is healing.

Moment by moment has become day by day, and soon I hope it will be week by week.

Baby steps can learn to run, especially if you have a hand to hold until you are ready.

 

 

French Antique Chocolate Cup

 

Last night was planned by our friend. He wanted to have a party. I took that as a step in a good direction. He planned and I set the table:

Peppercorn, goat cheese and honey baked puff pastry aperitif

Drinks by Sacha,

Oysters,

Fois Gras,

Champagne,

Pasta with cream and wild mushrooms,

Caramelized aubergine with baked tomatoes (I could have licked the pan, wait I did lick the pan!)

Vegetarian Bouche de Reine,

Varied French cheese,

Wine,

Salad,

Dessert from Fauchon.

And plates, no platters of love and happiness.

 

 

French Antique Chocolate Cup

A few minutes before midnight, I asked everyone if we could take a moment to reflect on the year we were going to leave behind.

A welcoming silence soften the conversation, forks and glasses sat still.

I asked if we could leave the things, feelings, events, moments of life that we no longer needed to carry with us into the New Year behind. If we could leave, even if a grain, that which held us down, bothered, bugged, and tugged us in a wrong direction aside.

 

 

French Antique Chocolate Cup

 

With carrying only that which we longed for,

that which encouraged us,

that which we loved,

forward

into the New Year.

 

 

French Antique Chocolate Cup

 

The cracks and crannies of that which we left behind,

Tears watered the moment.

Fertile ground ahead.

 

Note:

Fauchon



Comments

45 responses to “Fertile Ground Ahead”

  1. LauraInSeattle

    Happy New Year! You are so wise, your heart is so big.

  2. Agree. Your blog gives me comfort and joy.
    Happy New Year🎉🎉🎉

  3. I’ve been praying for your friend since the incident and am very happy he is doing better. Thank you for your beautiful and inspiring words.

  4. how wonderful….any chance you could share aubergine recipe? my daughters favourite and i never cook it right!

  5. Inspiring words of wisdom! *LOVE*

  6. I just wrote a lot of words and they were lost so maybe I need to write a shorter version. Holding hands with you is like light in the dark. I love the depth of feeling that that moment held for those at your table. As ever Corey your love abounds, you hold on tight to your friends and they to you most especially when they need your light to guide them through the dark, even when they do not know it. Continue to shine brightly,our beacon in this dark world. Thank you.

  7. Cheryl ~ Casual Cottage Chic

    Well said….well said. Happy New Year!

  8. What a beautiful way to enter the New Year. Wishing you and your’s a beautiful year filled with love, joy, laughter, and fun filled days. My heart will hold your friend dear and pray that he finds joy in the every day. Thank you Corey for being my bright spot every day. xo

  9. i have been out of the so i had no idea but the renewed hope for your friend is inspiring, your menu, beautifully delicious, and your encouraging words for this brand new year, *uplifting* corey. thank you and happy new year to you and yours.

  10. Thank you for this wonderful post. Let us all move forward into the new year with joy and hope for what the future holds.

  11. Lana Kloch

    what a wonderful column to end 2012 and to start the new year. you capture it all with your amazing choices of photographs.. love the silver cups.. and their arrangements. you are a gift to us, corey. merci beaucoup

  12. So beautifully poignant… you are a gift to us, and to your friends. Happy New Year!

  13. Beautuul writer you are, filled with love, passion, serenity.
    I am so happy to have met you Corey. . .
    May you and yours . . . carry encouragement into this new year . . .
    My caring . . . Lynne

  14. Betty Carlson

    Beautiful. Makes me feel ever so much readier for 2013.

  15. God Bless you Corey. You are very wise and caring. Your heart felt prayer resounds through time and space. What a wonderful way to enter the New Year.
    Every New Year’s Day my Great Grandfather would place his hand upon the head of each of his children and pronounce a blessing for the coming year. This continued as long as he lived. He passed away when he was 91 years old.
    What a wonderful concept! Blessing and wishing good fortune on those we love.
    My heart goes out to your friend and his difficult struggle of the PAST year. My prayer today is for the “Blessing” of Joy, Peace and Love for the NEW YEAR.

  16. oh yes,never more heart felt sentiments and agreements WELL SAID WELL SAID dearest c-HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL YOUR READERS TO ALL WHOM THEY LOVE- TO YOU AND TO ALL WHOM YOU LOVE-HEALTH WEALTH PEACE HAPPINESS JOY AND ABOVE ALL LOVE(and HEALTH-HAND IN HAND )TO ALL FOR ALL WITH ALL HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!

  17. What a grand gift you gave your friend to host his party — and what a wonderful gift HE gave everyone with his planning of the event! I’m please to learn that he’s recovering from his low-point, and finding joy in planning and helping bring to completion such a major endeavor. I trust a très magnifique was had by all.
    Bonne Année — Feliz Ano Novo — from Farmboy Husband and me!

  18. It would help if there weren’t typos in my message (ack!):
    I’m pleaseD…
    …a très magnifique TIME…

  19. Many thanks, Corey, for this past year of blogging and specifically this post!
    Thanks be to God for your friend’s progress!
    I believe that you’re truly blessed ,inspired by God and that your blog is a ministry to your many readers each and every day!

  20. It sounds like a beautiful, perfect evening. Happy New Year to you, dear Corey, and to your family.

  21. Chris Wittmann

    Lovely sentiments Corey and a very Happy and blessed
    New Year to your family and friends

  22. …leave behind the things that held us down, if even a grain. I am going to hold onto that sentiment, going forward, thank you. A lovely post.
    Happy New Year to you!
    And may the brocante-auction gods smile on us in 2013.

  23. Heatheroo

    Dearest Corey,
    The light of God in you is so bright. No wonder you are so loved around the world and by so many, especially your dear family and friends. A blessed New Year to you, dear friend.

  24. What wonderful sentiments and a great idea! Thank you, Corey, for all your thoughtful words, your inspiring photos and your own sweet self. Happy New Year from California!

  25. Wonderful. Happy New Year Corey.

  26. What a beautiful evening and better yet, what a beautiful way to embrace the New Year. So happy to hear your friend is healing.

  27. Sharon Penney-Morrison

    We spent a very quiet night by the fire. I wrote in my journal and reflected on 2012. I realized that holiness was in every disappointment, however I could not always see his presence. Looking back I can see.
    A friend said;
    “We are all going to botch it somedays. We all sometimes get the notes wrong. But the song only goes wrong when we keep thinking back to the wrong notes.”
    I look forward to a new year with all of the challenges and changes and will remember to be grateful everyday for family and friends and the gifts that I have.
    Happy New Year Corey and family. You are in my heart everyday.
    “But one thing I do:
    forgetting what lies behind
    and straining forward to what lies ahead…
    I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
    ~Phil. 3:13-14

  28. Your friend is blessed to have you! May God bless his, and your new year!!

  29. Another lovely post to start the New Year and the menu sounds divine. You are a blessing.

  30. Shelley Noble

    A glorious menu! And a profound presence among you. May the new year bring a forgetting of the grains and renewed peace in the best ways to you all.

  31. Susan from Vancouver,Canada

    Thank-you for your wonderful post. I admit it, I was sitting here feeling a little sorry for myself.A voice in my head told me to look at your blog…..again thank-you for sharing your life.I feel much happier now….

  32. Susan from Vancouver,Canada

    I admit it I was sitting here feeling sorry for myself.I read your post now I feel better.Thank-you for sharing your life and your optimism….

  33. France Forever 24/7

    Lovely post – may we all move forward in this new year with grace, gratitude, and blessings for what we have in the present.

  34. MA CHÉRIE
    Happy, happy New Year to you and yours….
    Now, I can breathe again – quietly and content – all my many, many, many cards (every single one personallized and with my own photos, some with round robins in G/E/or F) are done and sent – the mails are out and we’re back from Switzerland, ready to start the New Year – one of the first visits is to see you and I’m absolutely charmed by your views, wishes and plans… You have a beautiful heart, my friend and tons of talent.
    I wish you further growth and maturity, in your heart, mind and soul – I wish you wisdom, love, understanding and pardon, and I wish you the BESTEST year ever!!
    Love from your Swiss friend
    Kiki

  35. KAMFreeman

    Thank you Corey for words, spoken clearly in this beginning of a new year, reminding me that letting bits stay behind and bringing along with me hope and thoughts of goodness and joy is what happiness with my life is all about. Sweet, simple, clear, to the heart words from you that I will carry with me as I walk through the hours, days, weeks and months of this beautiful new year.
    Thank you for bringing your sweet spirit to so many of us, and for sharing the prayer requests and needs with us all. Carrying another prayer only deepens our personal faith walk and I appreciate your trust in the community of friends you have here to pray with you and your family.
    Namaste,
    Kristin

  36. What a beautiful sentiment. Now I’m going to shake off some of the mishaps of Jan. 1, 2013 and move on with the rest of the year.

  37. Blessings for your friend for bright new beginnings and may it be a year to sparkle and shine for us all.
    Love you
    Jeanne
    Happy New Year♥♥

  38. Well said, I’m wondering, where you got those lovely cups. Happy New Year!

  39. I’m so glad your friend is still with you. Happy, Happy New Year.

  40. Geez Corey, another gift of words . . .boy, you just keep on giving! OK, yesterday was tough. Feeling old & unable to find full-time work, I woke up in tears thinking of all my failures. Thank God for my AH (American Husband). . .he said I was a great mother. Yes! I hope.
    I really don’t think I can ever thank you enough for your blog & inspiration. You lift me up with your gentle guidance, sweet reminders, and the bond I feel from your posts (does that sound weird)?!?!?
    I don’t care. I want to get back to France this year & have some wine with you! Or you come here – do a US tour! Fun!!
    Happy New Year! May God bless you and your family. xo

  41. Corey, so beautifully said and such wonderful words to bring with you into 2013…….thank you for your post.

  42. Tongue in Cheek

    Sent from a reader of Tongue in Cheek:
    “Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.” Psalm 126 1, 4–6

  43. any chance you will share your pasta with cream and wild mushrooms recipe??

  44. The cups were indeed wonderful, where did you find them?
    Thank you, Sel

  45. Jennie@clusternavigators.com

    Lovely sentiments and very good to know your friend is making steady progress….always uplifting to read your stories…even the “I don’t want to go skiing ones!
    Greetings from the place you should be so you don’t have to go skiing…sunny, summery New Zealand.
    Cheers
    Jennifer

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