Nature’s Beauty

“Does anyone here speak English?”, I heard in a French accent from a few seats behind me on the train.

Being the only one who raised my hand, I saw a train conductor helping a woman find a seat next to mine.

Speaking to me in French, he said that she only spoke English and was having trouble understanding which train to take when we arrived in Paris.

He showed me her ticket with the name Josephine on it, but the woman said I could call her Jo.

After having helped her, we started talking and I got to know her a little more.

Jo was born and raised by Irish parents in Scotland, and she had originally worked for a Scottish sewing company.

She had eventually left to live in the UK, which is where she was headed that day.

When I told her that I was visiting family in France, Jo replied that she was coming from a retreat with her religious association, the Holy Family of Bordeaux.

Jo described them as an international society of laypeople, saying that they often meet together to pray and be a family.

Meet Jo

What brings her joy?

This society of people, Jo explained, always sought to find seek God in everything.

Nature, she decided, was her source of joy, because it was a terrific source of God in her life.

Though she seemed very certain about her answer, Jo mentioned that she had only come to appreciate nature through her religious society.

Whether it was the sea, wind, rain, or plains we saw out of our train window, it really didn’t make a difference it was all joy through God.