This didn’t look real when I took the picture, and it still doesn’t look real now to me.

I’ve just got to say it again, because I can’t think of anything better : Paris, je t’aime.

I have a whole week and a half left here and already, I’m feeling sad. I’m dreading leaving — how do we ever learn to leave the places we love? I’m beginning to think that we don’t. We just simply have to leave.

Is it normal that I feel this way? This heaviness of heart. That the mere thought of leaving physically pains me? Someone please tell me I’m not alone here … that you experience this, too.

The whole thing is, I know I have to leave. Could I stay?  Yes, I suppose I could, but that’s not the way it’s supposed to go down. Because there are other things to do and be done, to bring me back here and to skip over all that … I wouldn’t want to.

So I wake up knowing time is fleeting, as it always is anyway, and I think just about every hour, how I have to make the most of this. Take one more walk. Go to one more museum. Sit at one more café.

I was talking to TC yesterday, as I was at the Pompidou … I don’t know what hit me, but suddenly, as I’m standing in line, I realize I don’t want to be there.

I don’t want to look at more art. Part of it was the timing. I had a yoga class at 7:30 to make it to and it was already 6. I knew I’d have to haul ass through there and I wasn’t up for it. The Pompidou is huge and there’s too much I’d miss. Yet, I still felt like I had to do it. Because, well, here I am.

Really, I just wanted to be out and about. So I left. I walked over to Hôtel de Ville {City Hall} and checked out some concerts and then hit up yoga.

I just want to make sure I’m taking advantage of every day,  yet I also need not put so much pressure on myself. When I get down to it, what I love most about Paris is just the city itself, the walks and the neighborhood discoveries.

Ironic that it takes me being in Paris to realize that I need to take this “make the most of each day” thing with me wherever I am. I definitely don’t do it enough at home. I try. It’s an ongoing process.

May we all make the most of what we have. Enjoy.