Fall has always been my favorite time of the year. As a child nothing could beat the cool air and amazing changing colors of the leaves. It seemed magical and it still does for me. I like being outside more in the fall and in the spring than in the summer. Recently, I have also embraced the winter. I thought I would never! This year I made a concerted effort to accept summer. Perhaps, that’s the best I can do as a Southerner of the United States.

I can return to my morning coffee on the porch and I can return in the evenings with a cocktail or just to sit without a cocktail and journal. I can relax and read in the backyard without too many insects or humidity. Last year we were snowed in early winter. I discovered “hygge”.

Hygge is: a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture). -Oxford Languages

I posted about this last year and I will leave a link below. It’s a feeling that seems to intensify around fall and winter for me but, it’s always present. It’s not something that is for particular seasons. It’s something that is cultivated throughout the year. If only the United States and other countries could adopt this into their cultures. If we could create it in our homes, businesses, environments, you know, a sense of wellbeing, it would reduce stress levels. We definitely couldn’t wait for our governments to do it.

You will tell me to stop pipe dreaming and I would tell you stop damning the pipes. You, YOU CAN CREATE this contentment and well being in your own life and in the lives of others who are receptive by creating it FIRST within yourself and home. And then you can carry it with you. And then you can seek or better yet, be aware of opportunities to create a sense of well being in other environments and interactions. It’s essentially discovering the safe space in you and being one for others. Not everyone! For those drawn to you or you may be drawn to.

Open Up October is the them for my posts this month. I have no idea what they will be about lol. So, we’ll just go with the flow of the breeze.

~Nikki