My Own Private Camino

Article #2: Written from a small cave, on the side of a mountain overlooking El Monasterio Leyre in the Pyrenees of the Basque Country. These are the last words I will write in English before I convert formally to Euskara.

Pilgrim-hikers find time for inner reflection along Way of St. James stop in France

Keys to Photographing Le Canal du Midi

On Sunday my host Raoul took me on a bike ride along the Canal du Midi. It's like the C&O canal in DC except businessman don't cut down trees along the canal that block the view from their mansion.

Riding back I noticed a gorgeous field of sunflowers just on the other side of the canal, protected by a barbed wire fence. The flowers obviously needed to be photographed. Monday, I obliged the sunflowers. I learned a lot along the way. Enough to present to you:

The Keys to Photographing Sunflowers along the Canal du Midi in Southern France

1) Do not, under any circumstances, bring a map. French roads are generally laid out in a circular pattern, as opposed to English streets which use a grid pattern. Also, all the houses in suburban France conveniently look the same. This is perfect when searching for a field of sunflowers. Not only won't you find the sunflowers, but your frustration will be compounded when you realize you're incapable of finding a HUGE FIELD OF SUNFLOWERS.

2) Make sure you bring a heavy metal camera-stand that's large and black and doesn't fit in your backpack. That way, when you ride down the streets of Toulouse, all the French people will think you're carrying a semi-automatic rifle.

3) If you do nothing else, go in the middle of the day. The light from the sun will be incredibly ordinary AND it'll be as hot as possible when you get lost.

4) Oh, and when that cute French girl approaches you on the way back, make sure not to speak any French. You'll be too tired, frustrated, and sunburned to care about missing the chance to meet the future French mother of your children.

Okay, you're all set. Follow all the keys and here are some pictures you'll take:

Toulouse, Je t'aime

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

-Maya Angelou

What comes first: being happy or smiling?

Socially, I dominated middle school. There are a number of reasons why. I had a clique. I had a girlfriend. I still believed I was destined to play professional soccer (Brazil 2014!). Adults, teachers, fellow students older and younger; there were few people I felt uncomfortable talking to.

My high school social life didn't exactly live up. Some new realities had set in. There's a list, but most of it revolved around puberty. I was surrounded by the same people as middle school, but something had changed. I wasn't having the same social success. Sports became more difficult and I found myself struggling to keep girls' attention.

For a long time I externalized the blame. Fate, my parents, my school, my community: everything was fair game. Even into my twenties I blamed everyone and everything except myself.

Not long ago I came across an old photo album from that time in my life. Flipping through, I was unaffected seeing myself Boy Scouting, wrestling, playing soccer, or standing on stage. Towards the end of the album there was a pouch with all my old school pictures.

I never loved school photos, but I never feared them either. For some reason I'd always liked my photo from 6th grade. I wore a white, long-sleeve shirt with Michael Jordan silhouetted over wacky 1990's colors. I looked young but not infantile. For once, my unruly hair was tame. But what struck me more than anything was my smile.

I looked...happy. My smile was genuine, honest, welcoming. I recalled seeing the photo sometime during high school and trying to remember what it felt like to be in that moment and feel what that smile felt like. I remember failing. Pictures of that smile don't exist from high school.

I've never forgotten that photo. Thinking back, it's the way I wanted people to remember me, and I'd never understood why. Much later I realized it was my smile.

Please don't think that my smile is anything special. Everyone's smile has this power. A smile does a number of things well. First of all, it projects confidence. Two, it makes other people feel good. This combination creates a powerful attraction. In "Blink", Malcolm Gladwell talks about a famous study that found the act of smiling has a reverse effect. In other words, we smile when we are happy, but we also become happy when we smile.

On Tuesday I arrived in Toulouse, France. It's a big sprawling city with a gorgeous downtown and a extremely pleasant night-time atmosphere.

When meeting French people here, I have limited resources at my disposal. I don't speak French. I don't know anything about the city. And my host and I are still relative strangers.

And yet, I'm having a great time.

It could be French culture. Or maybe I'm blessed to stumble upon a group of people that make me feel so welcome. It could be I'm a curiosity because I'm foreign. But if I had to guess, I'd say smiling shares some of the responsible. Feels like middle school again.

Rule #4: Smile

Devendra Banhart - Can't Help But Smiling