On past lives (Day 108, Year 2)

Thus far, I've walked down the aisle of at least 10 gothic French churches, taking measured steps and feeling like I was walking toward my coronation. 

I know, I know. I am nuts! But there is something about the grand church aisles that seem to stretch on for an eternity that makes anyone standing there feel like royalty on their way to be crowned and told they were appointed by God to rule. (French church aisles are very egotistical.) 

As you know when I am not imagining to be a monarch, I am on Ancestry. com trying to prove that I am indeed related to one of the better royals (HOPEFULLY NOT, BUT MOST LIKELY WILLIAM THE CONQUER who basically forced his first cousin Mathilda to marry him, despite everyone telling them that maybe one should not marry a close relative). I enjoy imagining who my ancestors were, especially while in France, since I am at least 17% French. I know it is silly--but my ancestors must of had some very basic level of success because I exist! They had to live long enough to plant the seed which would plant the seed which would plant the seed and so on and so forth to become ME!

Amazing right? I definitely think my French ancestors dressed well and enjoyed a properly prepared steak and of course, an icy Sancerre on a warm French summer day. 

Closing the castle gate because someone has to. 

I also definitely think someone was royal! How else would I know how to pull down a drawbridge and how to survey my castle! We went to the Chateau de Caen today--the castle built by William the Conquer and where, it seems, he brought his cousin Mathilda to be his bride (icky). The castle is incredible. Lily and I walked there this afternoon and toured the grounds, including a medicinal herb garden (which I want to copy for Eldridge!) and walked the fortifications, peaking through the arrow slits and imagining who we might aim an arrow at. We returned in the evening to see the sunset and the bell of the Church of Saint-Pierre lit at dusk. 

It was magical. And for me, whether I was the woman with a crown in my past life or the woman who polished the crown (still a very important job!), being here makes me feel so much more connected to all those who came before me--the women who mothered the women who mothered the women and so on and so forth until my own mother mothered me. There are pieces of each of these women I carry in me; that my daughters and son carry in them. It is nice to feel a bit closer to knowing them and knowing myself.