Day 27 - SkyLines from the French Lock-down: Belief

Bonjour nos amis! Bonne fêtes de Pâques! (Hello our friends, happy Easter!)  This year the celebrations are different, but there is also that part of us that has not changed.  The seasons continue to turn and with the vernal equinox at Easter time, we change our winter colors for spring. On Wednesday, March 25th, the church bells across France rang for ten minutes - not just to mark the Annunciation, but in solidarity with the victims of CV-19 and health workers.(Paris Bells)  Perhaps it was also to remind us to fill our canvas of life with the colors of hope.

I took this photo for the cover of my first book in 2015.
Writing & publishing a book is definitely an act of faith.

Day 27 - The church bells of our village rang early.  And I do mean early.  We were fast asleep and it took a moment for my mind to realize that the music in my dream was actually coming from the

A dreamy photo just
because I like it and wanted
to share it with you.

waking world. The ringing was soft and sweet. It was a different sound from the loud bells that ring out the celebrations of weddings, baptisms or the muffled sorrowful doling of funeral bells.  It was a world away from the three times daily call to prayer at 7:00, 12:00, and 19:00  with it's 42 ding-dongs.

I know it's supposed to be 6, 12, and 6 pm.  All I can figure is as a tourist town, they said, hey - you are not ringing bells at 6 in the morning! The visitors will not like it. In the village, we've often remarked on the fact that it actually rings about three to five minutes after the hour.  I guess that's because the church bell also strikes the hours and quarter hours for us. The call to prayer might be confused for 42:00, right? Fun fact - the French word for bell is "cloche" from the Latin  "cloca." And yes, it's where our English word for clock originates!

It began quietly with a few exchanges of the highest toned bells.  The interplay of the notes

caught my foggy but slowly-awakening attention.  It was musical. I smiled.  It was like the

The Clock Tower in my village.

morning chorus of birds that I miss from my own village. After a while it switched over to the loud voiced big bells.  There was no more sleeping.  I thought about bells.

Luckily, I love them.  Living so close to a church tower both here in Argèles sur mer and also in my little village a few kilometers away, it would be a "pain in the proverbial" if I didn't.  But I do like them. For a few decades, I studied Campanology. (study of bells) as a hobby. 

Scores of pamphlets and photos from the English churches I visited over the years fill my box of memories.  During the 80's and 90's, we made special trips just hear and see their ring of bells. In my youth as a music student, the "bells" on a lyre in the marching band fascinated me, I was enchanted by a carillon performed at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, and then a book by Dorothy Sayers (The Nine Tailors) used a code to solve a mystery. It was based on Change Ringing (a style of ringing the bells based on number patterns) . I was hooked.

The bells of Argelès sur Mer rang out a bit louder.  I realized that it was Easter day. The church would be empty except for the priest and assistants who were saying service. And yet, in a way,

The view from the bedroom.
No wonder we hear the bells!

we who live inside the "balcony of the church" were there. People across the world are celebrating - either Easter, Passover, Holi, Navruz, the Spring, or just being alive.  It's a beautiful thought, that for just a moment, we might stop all that fussing and fighting and being divided.  Today, people will find a new way to observe their beliefs.  Let's celebrate this moment.  I'm not a Catholic. I have no designated faith.  But I am a very spiritual person.  I appreciate the strength, courage, beauty, charity, forgiveness, and most of all, the hope that is a part of human faith.  I'm also a big believer in hope.

Then the bells really began to rock!  It blossomed into a full-blown cacophony of jubilant noise. 

Happy spring!

My French partner stirred and in a sleepy voice he asked, "Quelle heure?" (What time is it?) I told him.  "Punaise!" he exclaimed. (Sorta means - that stinks!)  "Oui," I agreed, "It's all because of that really skinny guy we saw stretched out on the cross in the church yesterday.  He's risen and so we are supposed to wake up too." For a moment, the room was silent except for the sound of bells. I wondered if he understood that I was not being disrespectful but just playful. I turned over, smiled at him and said, "Joyeuse Pâques?" Fortunately, he smiled back. I believe it will be a good day. Happy Easter, everyone!

So, from our home to yours, and to those you love, we wish you well. Bells are also a symbolic - they are a signal.  Whether it's someone at the door, the sound of an alarm, a call to answer, or the wind-chime that calms the spirit - the idea is universal. It is a kind of voice that speaks to us. Time to wake up! In Buddhism, the ringing of a bell signifies "Pure Wisdom."  Whatever it means to you, may it be a sound that is ringing with hope.  We will get through this strange time and we will have done it together!

A demain, nos amis!  (Until tomorrow, our friends!) Link to Day 28

What a great excuse to eat chocolate!