At Rodin Museum. After The Rain.

When there are too many thoughts and screens, nature offers the pause you didn’t know you needed.

Yesterday after completing my tasks for the day, I went to the Rodin Museum. As I stepped outside, rain was pouring. I had no umbrella, no raincoat, and no time to go back for one. Oh well!

I took the metro instead of walking, hoping to minimise how wet I was going to get. But as I got out of the metro and walked toward the museum, the sky had cleared. No more rain. Even the sun was trying to shine through the cloudy sky.

I stood right in front of the entrance, observing the light. I’ve crossed that door multiple times, but in that moment, I thought:

I am standing here today. This moment is unique. It will never happen again in the same way.

The light, the clouds, the calm after the rain. All of it felt like a brief pause of stillness.

I looked to the right. I looked to the left. One image immediately caught my eye: the tree to the left, next to the building. I follow the changes of that tree throughout the seasons. Now it has lost all its leaves. It looked like one more sculpture in the garden.

These small transitions in nature (the clearing sky, the bare branches, the stillness after the rain, the sun peaking at a distance), reminded me that there are always unexpected moments in life. Times when our expectations don’t match our reality. Situations that catch us off guard, unprepared. Then, there are also these quiet moments that help us feel our feet supported by the ground, that allow our body and mind to relax.

This is exactly why being outdoors matters. Nature helps us train our attention to be in the present moment. It teaches us to pause long enough to notice what is actually here, now. Not what we assumed (or expected) would be.

Inside the garden, I noticed movement on the grass. From all the times I’ve been at the Rodin Museum, this is only the second time I’ve seen one. That tiny moment, just for a few seconds held several emotions: anticipation, surprise, joy, presence, and a gentle reminder that we all share the same planet.

There is always a moment of calm in between the rough patches.

Sometimes just a few seconds of connection to nature, can shift the way we feel. Have you experienced that?

Yesterday, I caught one of those moments.
And that is today’s postcard from Paris.

I’ve always enjoyed writing and sending postcards. Sharing these digital postcards here is an experiment.

As part of this experiment, I would like to send one “real postcard” via postal mail to one of the subscribers to Mindful Walks in Paris. I’ll write details in the Mindful Walk Subscriber chat.

Thank you for allowing me to share this postcard with you today!

PS. After I took these photos, strong rain started pouring again!