How are you today? All well I hope? Happy Autumn/Fall everyone 🍂 Today marks the first day of the third season of 2019. Goodbye Summer and hello Autumn...
The leaves are already falling from the trees and starting to make the garden at the back of the house look very untidy. Hubby will no doubt soon have to start spending Sunday afternoons outside raking them all into huge piles and as he gathers them our much loved furbaby Jade will be wagging her tail and jumping into the leaf piles🍂 Hubby never seems to mind, bless him 💖
Missing Summer Already..
The evenings are decidedly drawing in now too honeys. Gone are the lovely, long Summer days where it's daylight until after 10pm. Even when the weather is miserable outside (it's Scotland, we do get a lot of rain) it's bearable because, hey, at least we still have daylight 😊 It's already getting dark now by around 7pm and the days will just keep getting shorter. One of the (very) few things I genuinely dislike about living in Scotland is the all encompassing darkness of winter.
On the west coast, during the deepest part of winter, we don't see daylight each day until after 9am and by 3-3.30pm it will be entirely dark again outside. Not a gradually descending darkness either, it always feels to me as if someone flicks a switch, and just like that, the darkness covers us like the heaviest winter blanket.
I don't cope at all well in winter dear ones. I find it suffocating. Winter (with the help of my arthritis) makes everything hurt and worse than that, it absolutely drains me. I know from chatting to others at work that I'm not alone in feeling like this. I've never been able to find a way to completely avoid this winter-long melancholia. Like everything else though, it can, and has to be, fought against. Easier said than done, Rosie, I hear you say.
If, like me, the thought that we'll now have to wait over five months till we reach Spring again and the approach of winter fills you with dread, well, I've learned that we have to find our joy honeys. We have to find it and hang onto it with all of our strength until the days start getting longer again.
Finding Our Joy...
A few years ago I started seeing the wonderful Danish word hygge appear in newspapers, magazines and online. Intrigued, I started to search out the meaning behind it and found to my delight that it described a mood, a way of living that encourages cosiness and friendliness all tied into feelings of wellness, being contented with our lot in life.
As a longtime believer that every day is made better by counting our blessings, acknowledging and being thankful for every one of them, I've happily tried to embrace the lovely concept of hygge.
I know that I'm truly blessed in that my biggest smiles can all be found right here in our little house. My dear Hubby, our precious furbaby Jade and even our little home itself all make my heart smile so much it sometimes feels like it'll burst 😍 I'm so grateful for loved ones, for my little part time job, for every load of laundry I'm still able to do and for so many other things that always make me smile.
Every day, I count my blessings honeys and what are aches and pains in comparison? Take that arthritis, you're not the boss of me! At least not today. Today I choose to feel blessed and today I can smile.
Battling The Melancholy Of Approaching Winter
So, we have 90 days till winter starts. That's almost 3 months. Why even think about it, Rosie? Well honeys, the legendary Scottish comedian Billy Connolly summed it up perfectly when he said "There are two seasons in Scotland, June and winter." 😃
Actually as I write this, the sun is shining outside but the rain is forecast to arrive this afternoon and be with us for the rest of the week. We're used to rain in Scotland. It rains a lot. A really lot. Throw the almost constant darkness of winter into the mix and you've got a climate that almost grabs Scots by the collar and demands at the very least melancholy if not outright misery. Think I'm being a wee bit dramatic? Not even a tiny bit honeys.
My response to this is generally to ignore it 😊 I work part time, two days a week, and for the other five days of that week our curtains remain closed and I pretend it's sunny outside and, if I were to open those curtains, I'd, for sure, be greeted with a burst of colour from the gorgeous roses in our tiny front garden 💗
I keep the awful grey skies on the other side of those curtains and inside, Jade and I go about our day as happy as if it actually was spring outside. Of course, if it was spring then Jade would want to be out in the garden playing with her chew toys or her tennis ball, or maybe trying to make friends with the tiny squirrel who visits our garden. During the winter months though, she's happy to cuddle with her Mummy on the sofa, sharing a huge, soft Sherpa throw. Jade happily naps while I watch favourite movies or binge watch dvd boxsets and we both wait for her Daddy to get home.💖
Fake It Till You Make It (To Spring)
If the weather doesn't want to let me spend time outside with my beloved roses honeys, then I'll spend that time finding happiness inside our home instead, maybe finding tiny organising projects to work on. Whatever I decide to do, my assistant Jade will be right alongside me keeping me company 💗
I was told as a child that every day we're given the gift of being able to choose our mood for that day, so, why not pick a good one?
Just the simple act of smiling acts like magic on us honeys. We immediately feel better, it's been proven to reduce stress and even to lower blood pressure. All from a little smile 😄
Just making the effort to find that smile is so worthwhile because once you start to smile, it's surprising just how easy it is for that smile to stay with you all day. Even better, almost everyone who sees you smile will smile right back. Smiles are the most contagious things 😄
So, even if you have to search for your smile dear ones, the time spent on that search is so worth it. Till you find your happy, smiley thoughts, which won't take long, why not just smile anyway? It'll feel good and you'll want to hang onto, and share, that feeling 💖
Last Thoughts...
I'm sure all of this "oh no! Summer's over! Winter's coming! The world is ending!" talk must sound very odd to anyone who loves autumn and winter but, hand on heart honeys, if I had a choice I'd be happy if we lived in a spring and summer loop. We'd get to the end of summer and as if by magic, it would be spring again and I could happily watch our garden begin to burst into life all over again🌹 Or, failing that I'd like to hibernate please 😊
Unfortunately I can't have either but with the help of our much loved little home, Hubby and our baby Jade, snuggly throws and dvd boxsets, I'll soon forget the weather outside and remember how blessed I am and be happier than any wee Rosie has a right to be. For all of the blessings in my life, I'm so grateful and how could I not smile?
What's making you smile honeys? What's your favourite season? Are you a Spring or summer person or an autumn or winter fan? I have to admit that I do adore the gorgeous colours Mother Nature uses to paint the world in autumn. I'll even admit that a snowy landscape can be beautiful (so long as I don't have to go outside in it) but I'd still love to live in that spring & summer loop though 😊
Till next time dear ones, smile lots and hug even more, hugs always x
