Obviously she enjoyed food, but after reading more about her life it's clear that Julia's happiness went much deeper than just an obsession with butter and good pastry crust. She and her husband lived on a government salary in the 1940s and 50s in France, and that wasn't much. They didn't have fancy things, they didn't have copious amounts of extra income. They were comfortable, but they were not wealthy to say the least. Somehow, though, Julia's life is marked by a complete and total joie de vivre. Her life was characterized by simple things - cooking classes, teaching herself to cook, dinner parties with friends, exploring Paris. She loved having new cooking things, yes, but it was more what she created with her cooking accoutrements that she loved than the particular items herself. Basically, she wasn't materialistic. It was her achievements in the kitchen and the people she got to share them with that made her life bright.
Julia wasn't half-hearted in anything that she did. She put everything she had into enjoying every experience she could find and she went all-out with it all. She tested every recipe she wrote scientifically, she learned how to buy every grocery item like a true French chef. She was devoted to her husband and her close friends. She never stopped seeking to learn and grow and find new experiences - her famous Mastering the Art of French Cooking wasn't even published until she was 51! She worked on her TV show and published books well into her 80s. She never caved into the idea that she had to stop living because she was no longer "young".
I want to find my greatest joy in good times with friends and family, in growing spiritually and intellectually and relationally. Even if we're eating at an old table with burn marks and two broken chairs, I want that table to be surrounded by laughter and happiness as Chris and I and our children and hopefully guests eat and drink and be merry. And I do not want to get caught up in the mentality that the best thing about retirement is that you get to shut down and stop doing things and live at the beach. When I hit 50, I want to be taking classes because, hey, why not? I want to be writing books, even if I still haven't gotten published (whew. that's a depressing thought.) I want to be active in people's lives and developing as a human being. I want to have goals that I'm working towards. You're never too old for that.
I think my life will be a simple life. But I intend to make it a great life.
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