Imagined Paris Podcast

"I’m listening, Paris. To the waves in your river. To the wind by the canal. To the past-midnight steps my boat shoes drag. To the growing space between the last kiss and the next. I’m listening to the silence that is trying to heal the banging noises in my head - the literal ones too..." (Read the full text on imaginedparis.com)

"I’ve been feeling light and reassured – my trust in myself playing a big part, I haven’t had time to question the ideologies and if they are aligned – alright, maybe I shouldn’t trust myself that much. Is this how capitalism creeps into our lives? No, capitalism fills us with anxiety and insecurity that motivate us blindly. This is something else – a religion? No, religions also fill us with anxi...

"Wait – how could I even call anything a problem if I keep maintaining this feeling good and satisfied and free and in love in the first place? Because people and things exist outside your mind, dear? They challenge your inner peace; they block the flow of your inner river from time to time. So, anyone and anything outside of me is the problem? No, a problem isn’t a mismatch between what is and wh...

"A subtle kind of touch yet constant, which creates these capillary waves inside my heart, has happened; an interaction with the wind, the subtle yet constant wind, has happened. No splash as when a rock is thrown like a punch, which my heart was used to; this is a dance, ou bien a kiss, between water and air. I’m not talking about astrology here – or am I? Venus in Scorpio here – does that explai...

"Now, what do I perceive as negative? Is it other people’s sadness, instinctive fears, or guilt? No, I do not see honest and pure introspective emotions as negative, I don’t even see heartbreaks as negative – I’m an expert by this point. Everything that brings, potentially or eventually, someone inward and closer to understanding themselves, and, eventually, understanding others, or vice versa, is...

"I have been peeling the layers, shedding the skins a lot more aggressively these days and my discernment is a lot more on point too. Changes have been happening quicker and instead of seeing it as instability I can’t help but recognise it as momentums being gained..." (Read the full text on imaginedparis.com )

"I’m sure you do. And I will always try to understand when you can’t show that you do. Come to think about it, my principles and philosophy are the things that often cause me a heartbreak. But might as well, as they’re also the very things that put me back together again. Stronger, even softer, that my heart does not break that much or take too long to mend these days...." (Read the full text on i...

"What about love? Love is my given state, my default setting, even if he didn’t effortlessly make my fussy self quite so easily agree to say yes to one of my least preferred foods galette. But he did, and it turned out to be one of the most ravishingly enjoyable meal I have ever had in my life! It was at Ar Poul Gwen, a few-minute walk from Gare du Nord. Love is my given state, my default setting,...

"I sometimes wonder how many can take you, the full depth and breadth of you, like I can. I sometimes wonder how many, if anyone, can take me, the full depth and breadth of me, my undeniable, demanding presence, like you can. I wonder if I can take anyone, their full depth and breadth, without stealing their freedom, without wanting them to give up what they’re not ready to give. Without losing my...

"In fact, I’d love to learn to drop my ego even more, if that’s possible – that’s possible, and if that means more truths will be revealed and eventually accepted. My power is in my ability to stay soft in the face of difficulties. I care more about balance, and this could be the reason why the pain might not be all that good, or even necessary, for me. We’ll see...." (Read the full text on imagin...

"I am feeling extraordinarily calm and content with my surroundings while at a distance with a place, ou bien with someone, I’m clearly in love with. No – no distance. Only space. Hence the calm and contentment. Reassurance is probably the word I was looking for, and this time it comes from within..." (Read the full text on imaginedparis.com )

" No one has made it to that status. Just yet. And what happens when that happens? That might be the time to be even more unreasonable and make my heart so portable that it doesn’t matter where I am or whom I’m with I’ll still feel whole. Yet just...." (Read the full text on imaginedparis.com )

"As happy as London is capable of making me these days, it’s nice to know you’re still waiting for me, Paris, and that I’m still looking forward to spending time with you – your river Seine and your streets, your language and your artists, your slow change that is single-handedly capable of comforting me when capitalist propaganda nags me with ‘produce and progress’ while all I want is to walk, pe...

"I’m leaving you again tonight, Paris. Thank you for the dynamic rest you provide for this restless mind and opened heart. I think London is waiting for me, with its theatres and River Thames, with love in its air again because I’ll be around again with the usual Parisian sass and finesse. Maybe I’ll give Vienna a visit too, simply because someone beautiful mentioned it on a beautiful morning rece...

"Almost greedily, Paris, I am consuming everything that is beautiful and temporary this morning has to offer for me – everything that is music, everything that is light, everything that is warm, everything that is carnal, and in the process, I feel your embrace embodied. Who knew love isn’t in anything eternal? Who knew, that as the objects come and pass, love travels so that it has a chance to ev...

"I’m rejoicing in this very hour of freedom, to breathe and to write my heart out from this warm barge on the River Thames under the Albert Bridge and to reach your ears and your heart’s peripheries and make you feel less alone, maybe even less afraid...." (Read the full text on imaginedparis.com )

"Can one be on the wrong path when wishing only good things? Can one be on the wrong path wishing no harms on others? Is it enough – wishing and wanting? And which ‘others’ – is there only one? I feel that my questions about the world are no longer fake..." (Read the full text on imaginedparis.com )

"To experience to be accepted without having to perform is to learn how to love others more unconditionally. Oh, to feel so free! I wouldn’t know which came first – the freedom to be myself or being accepted for myself, but the impact on my journey is profound and I am most grateful..." (Read the full text on imaginedparis.com )

"Your river, Paris, she is deep and wide enough for vessels to travel. My heart is deep, and more so in continuous heavy rain, but has it been wide enough for vessels to travel? And is it safe enough for one to stay, especially when it is overflowing?" (Read the full text on imaginedparis.com )

"My little heart, pretending to be big, who gets the hurt from my strong conviction, can handle it. But perhaps I lied when I said my heart didn’t need soothing when I broke it with my rational decision— to break up in December, par exemple — or at least I was confused. Now, after waves of pain, guilt, and even anger, which surprised my heart a little, I know my rational conviction, my principles...

"Ça va, Paris ? " "How have you been in the last few hours? You looked after me so well for the past week that there was not a moment that I didn’t feel loved, and London was so welcoming this morning with its persistent rain, which I welcomed with my persistent smile..." (Read the full text on imaginedparis.com )

"I ran two miles this morning and walked a little along the Seine, spying Notre Dame in the distance with giddiness in my body before picking up mini viennoiseries from the local boulangerie. I am now back in bed, sitting here not feeling blue, spilling my heart to you: Paris, Paris, que je m’en fou!" (Read the full text on imaginedparis.com )

"That’s what I want, Paris – staying close. I’m staying close to you when the rain tiptoes on the skylight window in the morning, when water splashes the porthole of my room like a waving scarf, when I hear my footsteps on the barge floor in the middle of the night, when my breaths speak slowly to my mind, when tears gently cleanse my face…" (Read the full text on imaginedparis.com )

"It’s quiet, Paris. The rain is dancing lightly on the pier and on the deck and I feel as light— ben , it’s just getting heavier all of a sudden—now it’s tiptoeing again—getting heavy again, and back to its lightness – you get the idea. Yet, all the same, it feels quiet in my world...." (Read the full text on imaginedparis.com )

"A bientot, Paris!" "I now feel so embraced while embracing all my Parisian phases—the ‘young and abandoned’ Dina, the ‘unhappily-married’ Dina, the ‘reborn and rebellious’ Dina, the ‘single and not on the dating apps’ Dina, the ‘insatiable Londoner girlfriend’ Dina, and the current phase I haven’t got a label for yet..." (Read the full text on imaginedparis.com )