I am really lucky. Empathic, driven, anxious, sensitive, occasionally depressive but really, really, lucky. I don’t know that I have had as pleasant of an Easter since the kids were searching for eggs and I was making bunny cakes to share with our whole family. I spent this Easter Sunday indulging in my life in France.

The weather was at times blustery and cloudy, but often bright and sunny. Everytwhere you look there are beautiful flowers, bright green grass, and new beginnings. The baby lambs are growing alongside their mamas running in the field. The proud mother duck leads her 10 impossibly tiny ducklings elegantly across the community pond. It seems in this season and this place everywhere there is hope.

It almost has served as panacea for the despondency I and many of my fellow American citizens felt this winter as our country endured perverse greed, corruption and nepotism. Who knew how powerful change and new perspectives can be?

I was invited to my friend’s home for Easter dinner. I don’t think Americans can truly understand how a Brit does a roast dinner until they have experienced it for themselves. The food was beautiful, and the people I shared it with were even better. Sophie joined in but had a few skirmishes with the host dog . I was apalled to have her fierocious side revealed when she growled, nipped, and snarled at her new friend. It is such a different facet of her and one that I have not really seen. It’s kind of like the first time you see your parents cry. Completely unexpected and a bit unnerving. In the end Sophie calmed down and returned to her gentle self. We all managed to enjoy a shared meal and good company.

The pavlova was a success (even if it was more beige than white). It was fun to see the girls open their Kinder eggs and retrieve their toys. It was all wonderful. And diffrent and new. The only thing that could have made it better was having my family members that had phoned and facetimed earlier in the day right there at the table with us. But, then there would have been less asparagus and cheesy leeks to go around.