{"id":25177,"date":"2023-07-21T09:11:30","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T13:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/?p=25177"},"modified":"2026-06-24T10:27:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:27:59","slug":"la-vita-e-bella","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/la-vita-e-bella\/","title":{"rendered":"Life is beautiful!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

7:36 a.m. at the coffee shop
I love using the word YES. Three small letters heavy with meaning.
Yes, I love you. Yes, you can. Yes, I agree.
Yes, I will help you. Yes, life is beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This pretty little word, YES, glides on the horizon like a majestic eagle, and when the snow strikes at our cheeks, he transforms into Santa\u2019s sleigh, filled with presents. The clear tweets of the goldfinch herald summer. Do you hear them? I hear the chirping of the skylarks with their tousled coif even in my slumber. I imagine their song like an orchestra of a thousand \u201cyes, yesses\u201d dressed in tuxedos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three divine letters that can seal a marriage. Yes, yes! Or more like seal and destroy it within seconds, you\u2019ll say. YES is probably the most important word in the dictionary. It may not be as decisive and sharp as NO, but it\u2019s filled with hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you think you could calculate the number of times you say YES each day? And maybe the number of NOs, too? Would you be more of a YES or a NO? I am going to keep a notepad in my pocket and conduct my own investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I obviously think of myself as a YES as big as Everest! The NO is a bogeyman who scares me. NO often sounds like the pummeling of a hammer. As a child, all I ever heard were these short and decisive blows: no, no, no!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My brother would only very rarely accept to play with us girls. He thought he was so smart. Sitting on the fence in our yard, he spoke of the future and the amazing professions he would later pursue. And we would laugh when we heard him list his future endeavours: elephant trainer in Kenya, magician, spy or the peninsula\u2019s official thrift shop dealer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I dreamed of big YESSES at that time too. I would fill all the white papers I could get my hands on with black ink. I loved to write and discover new words and their meaning. When I was 11, I received a Larousse dictionary for Christmas and I was ecstatic. Every night, I fell asleep with the huge book of words held close to my heart. I was on cloud nine even when Mom occasionally complained because I asked her to iron pages I had accidentally crumpled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Really, this wonderful gift was the first of over 30 different dictionaries I bought over time and still keep close to this day. They fill the shelves of an IKEA library in my home. Even if I have Google at my fingertips, I still love to open a scholarly book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hesitate between YES and NO very often. Is it possible that we are both brave and cowardly at the same time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I get the impression that YES is constantly opening its arms in a warm welcome. Would the NO be as important as the YES? A NO closes the door, if you ask me. It turns off the light and doesn\u2019t hear the heart\u2019s cries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not easy saying YES, but saying NO is just as scary. NO bothers people. More often than not, it disappoints, angers and saddens the one who utters it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps we are incapable of choosing a side? To say YES or NO? Maybe it\u2019s the head and the heart opposing each other? Would this mind that never rests be chattier than the heart? More analytical and thoughtful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We believe that the heart beats and that\u2019s all. But the great inventor, mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal is remembered for his famous saying: \u201cThe heart has its reasons, which reason does not know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think about it. The heart beats fast or slow depending on what\u2019s going on. Is it the centre of feeling, emotion and love with a capital L? Today, the symbol for the heart \u2665 is universal and is part of the emotional symbolism of our culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

wild boom, boom<\/a>! This stranger\u2019s blue-black eyes pierced my own, and I felt like I was plugged into the world\u2019s biggest hydroelectric plant. A million tiny YESSES were jumping in my head. A blissful happiness took over me and, when his eyes met mine, I suddenly felt so hot that I thought I\u2019d have to jump into the ice floe to cool down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this lasted for a brief moment; the time it took to bite into a few almond croissants and learn that the man was only passing through. If only! What is this divine electricity that pushes beings to seek another, to love and reproduce here on Earth?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Am I going to have to question the angels for the thousandth time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cora
\u2665<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

7:36 a.m. at the coffee shopI love using the word YES. Three small letters heavy with meaning.Yes, I love you. Yes, you can. Yes, I agree.Yes, I will help you. Yes, life is beautiful. This pretty little word, YES, glides on the horizon like a majestic eagle, and when the snow strikes at our cheeks, he transforms into Santa\u2019s sleigh, filled with presents. The clear tweets of the goldfinch herald summer. Do you hear them? I hear the chirping of the skylarks with their tousled coif even in my slumber. I imagine their song like an orchestra of a thousand \u201cyes, yesses\u201d dressed in tuxedos. Three divine letters that can seal a marriage. Yes, yes! Or more like seal and destroy it within seconds, you\u2019ll say. YES is probably the most important word in the dictionary. It may not be as decisive and sharp as NO, but it\u2019s filled with hope. Do you think you could calculate the number of times you say YES each day? And maybe the number of NOs, too? Would you be more of a YES or a NO? I am going to keep a notepad in my pocket and conduct my own investigation. I obviously think of myself as a YES as big as Everest! The NO is a bogeyman who scares me. NO often sounds like the pummeling of a hammer. As a child, all I ever heard were these short and decisive blows: no, no, no! My brother would only very rarely accept to play with us girls. He thought he was so smart. Sitting on the fence in our yard, he spoke of the future and the amazing professions he would later pursue. And we would laugh when we heard him list his future endeavours: elephant trainer in Kenya, magician, spy or\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":414,"featured_media":25178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Au caf\u00e9 du village, Mme Cora c\u00e9l\u00e8bre le mot oui, trois petites voyelles qui en disent long. Oui, la vie est belle!","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"class_list":["post-25177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lettre-mme-cora"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/414"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chezcora.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25177"}],"curies":[{"name":"WP","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}