I recently learned a few things I’d like to share with you, if I may. These may be random ‘bits’ to you. To me, they are directly relatable and relevant to my experience being here in Maine during winter’s time. And so, they have found their way into this RoadTrip Chronicle.

This is a description I read this week in a high-end loungewear catalogue: ‘You may have heard the Danish word ‘hygge’ – a term of comfort that evokes fireplaces, blankets and other soft things. In Norway, a similar word is ‘koselig’. These words get people through the winter – with a focus on companionship, coziness and well-being.’

Intrigued by the concept, my subsequent research reveals that .. ‘Hyoo-guh’ or ‘hoo-gah’ approximate the Danish word’s pronunciation. It’s become an internationally-used word meaning: feeling warm, comfortable and safe. Taking time away from the daily rush to be together with people you care about – or even on your own – to relax and enjoy life’s

quiet pleasures.

The word ‘hygge’, in the meanings it has today, dates back to circa 1800.. Examples: relaxing with close relationships over mulled wine, a picnic, board game or movie – time with friends feeling like you are wrapped in a hug. (Note: I LOVE feeling this. And you? 🧸 ) 

A house that is hygge is peaceful, serene and free of clutter. Decor: plush textures, greenery, warm, neutral shades of colour. Physical ease, relaxation, comfortableness, comfiness, comfort, snugness warmth of connection, being together with friends & other loved ones; or on one’s own. Hot tea, warm slippers. Scent of hygge are sweet vanilla, woody tobacco and cedar.

Quiet comfort. No multi-tasking. Wearing comfortable clothing, Bring outdoors in with plants. Soften and simplify home with hygge decor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygge

Perhaps this is more than you are interested in knowing, and so on to the next share .. This is more personalised to you and my wish is that you feel comfortably, warmly hugged (or hygged) by me as you read on ..

I’ve made a point (in the first 10 Chronicles) of letting you know that when I write these shares, I think of you, personally. I read the names of everyone to whom I send these, before I start to write. As I write, I am freshly aware of friends, family and new acquaintances who may read what I share. Then, when the Chronicle is complete, I select recipients 1-by-1 at the time of each mailing, rather than creating a ‘Group Send’. At that time, I also consciously connect with you in heart and mind.

Now, at this year’s end, I have penned individual statements of Gratitude and Love to share with you. I intend to write 18 per Installment until every friend I send these Chronicles to has been individually addressed. It’s a fun way for me to acknowledge my own many blessings from knowing you. And you. And you.

I celebrate ‘the holidays’ as a several-month season – starting with USA ThanksGiving (recognising that the meaning I give to it is based on fond childhood experiences and memories) and a few more through to the time of Lunar New Year. This is observed especially beautifully in Hong Kong where I lived from 1986 – 2019. So, the ‘holiday season’

can last, for me, from November through February (depending on LNY dates each year).
There are many meanings I associate with each and all of the holidays this time of year. And ALL of the holidays engender a deep appreciation and gratitude for Life, for Love, for Bounty and for Beauty.

For Connection and Caring, Compassion and Harmony. For Giving and Receiving. For Sharing and for Daring to be the best version of ourselves as humans – the best that each and all of us know how to be.

And so, for you, by initials .. my deepest appreciation and Gratitude to
you 18 for ..

ZH: Being so caring. Sharing as you do. Showing up for the people and community we both care about; and I know you do for and in other communities as well. For always being mindful of your own ways of being, doing, speaking, caring and growing. For spending time with me laughing, wondering, playing together as we do. Thank You. I love You. Blessings.

WG: During Covid, we met at a general department store in the first few feet of its front foyer. You walked in, announced you felt free and were SO excited to have a few moments to yourself to shop. The store employee and I were 10’ from you. Interestingly, none of us wore masks (Covid) as it was a time in the 2.5 year period I recall when most folks felt ‘safe’ not to. I asked you why you felt ‘free’ and you shared that your Father was very ill and you were nursing him at home. I said
something else and before we knew it, we were hugging each other. Three warm, heart connecting hugs. Bless you for being You. Thank you for those moments and those amazing hugs. I love you and wish you all best things in life. I would love to know if you have found the work you were keen to do. And I hope to see you and connect in person again one day.

MB: For being a most extraordinary survivor of what has variously been called ‘family violence / domestic assault’. For staying in touch even though our connection is a reminder of those difficult days of disentangling yourself and yours from dynamics of co-dependence and violence. We have maintained a connection that focuses on happy resolutions and many many years lie between that chapter of life and now, for us both. I am deeply grateful for your foundational sense of personal agency, sovereignty and right action. And I am touched to my core that you deal so graciously with chronic pain and the physical discomforts you experience daily. So much can be said for your spirit and strength, your beauty and heart-energy, your courage and your love. I hold you in high esteem. And love you. Bless you.

MW: For being an extraordinary Master Teacher, friend, woman, scholar, metaphysician. For caring very deeply that you fulfil your missions in this lifetime on this planet. For fiercely loving those you love. For caring deeply for those who gratefully find themselves in your orbits and your adventures. For being beautiful and strong and passionate about what matters to you. For the high play we enjoy from time to time. For the occasional deep dives we take into things important to us both. For your creative genius and your productive Personal Mastery. May you always be blessed with good health, happiness and bounty to support and sustain you all the days of your life, now and forward. None has worked more diligently, faithfully and stalwartly to bring forward bodies of knowledge and wisdom to help humanity evolve. I love you dearly.

AR: For being a most extraordinary elder, cosmic character and woman .. all in one massively dedicated, artistic, devoted being. Thank you for bringing through bodies of work which are designed to uplift and guide humanity as we continue to evolve, awaken and evolve some more. Bless you for enduring the day-do-day challenges that inevitably dog us as we age. I love you for so much – that you care so deeply and see so clearly, that you are able to and do ‘name’ the elephants in the room, that you create fun and beauty through your art and your words. Thank you for calling me ‘friend’.

TB: Where to start with my deep, deep gratitudes to and for you, dear Friend? That you support and sustain various people and have for most of your life, in myriad ways .. I thank and bless you. That you have found your way into the most delicious degree of ‘being present’ and of ‘having fun being present’, and of ‘taking up your rightful space and air-time’ and that you are honest and caring and sharing and giving and laughing and loving and living and that you are one of the brightest lights I know on Earth at the moment, thank you. I do so Love you. Bless you.

MC: For being a most extraordinary character who has pushed the limits of what ‘being human’ might look, act, feel, be like in a given life, since an early age, through life-threatening injuries and recovery, to be the beautiful, smart, caring, brave, creative, multi-talented, energy powerhouse that you are! Well. Wow. And wow again. You have defied many odds to be alive and to thrive. And you are doing, and being and having both. And I salute, love, thank and bless you for this .. and more. My gratitude and heart-felt love to and for you.

AH: We have known each other a very long time. And we’re both in the elder / wise woman / crone age-group finally. What a run we have had, so far. And we’re just gearing up for the next 7 decades or more, eh? heheheheh. You, madam, have such heart and courage, integrity and intelligence. You care, you pay attention, you share, you think for yourself, you are a friend I know I can count on, and do. Thank you. Love you. Bless.

SK: Life, lived in Asia for half of my journey on this planet this time, so far, became SO much more fun when we were introduced by our mutual friend. From there, we have been purposeful in our play, in our project, in our lives as friends .. something we continue to this day .. and for which I am fundamentally grateful for, in every way. Your love
and support, your playful, joyful bits, your caring for so so many, your ministry to so so many, your diligence in staying true to your own journey and course of action, your loyalty to family and friends, your affection for cat and turtle folk and for all of the calendars and dd pads over the years, thank you, thank you, thank you. Life is much richer for me with you in it than it would otherwise be. Bless you in every way. Love you.

KW: You are the most out-of-the-box thinker I have had the fortune to meet and get to know personally. I love your contrariness, your outlier senses of what works, what’s right and what’s not okay. I love not being able to predict what you are thinking, doing, will say, will do ..Thank you for the many, many years of our unique friendship and the years during which we carried our project through to completion together. What fun we have had often debating this or that, sometimes just for fun, and more often because a better idea comes from the time and that effort. For making sure I had a good meal once a week when I was recovering from SARS in 2003. That regular contact reminded me that I was alive, (after ‘dying’ at home alone and ‘returning’ to inhabit my very dead body). Your support and encouragement for me to get back into circulation after 9 months of recovery, I will always, always remember .. even lifetimes from now, I will remember that and you. Bless you. Thank you. I love you, friend.

AD: For all the silly word play and play of other kinds; for loving and sheltering cats as you (and we both) do – you for waaaaay longer than me so far .. for the many films we have watched together and fun times we’ve shared, I deeply thank you. I trust you know that I love you like I do a sibling. A sibling I love, and miss. I know that your life is taking you in to areas of interest and directions I’ll not be going into ‘with you’. I wish you the blessings of love, honesty, caring, connection and

companionship which nurture and receive your best from you and offer you the best from others as and when you wish it. You are a remarkable being, in my life and in the life of so, so many on this planet. For the love you embody. For the clarity you offer and seek. For the unique and myriad talents you have actively cultivated over many years. For seeing through the silliness of humans to the beauty of humanity and for choosing to be the best, most loving You that is possible .. I thank, bless and love you.

LMA: We haven’t spent much time together in our lives yet. Even so, when we connect those times are meaningful in conversations and sharing with others when you and I are also present. For your pluck, your authentic self, your diligence in doing your work in service to others, your willingness to support your family and the 3 generations with whom you live in an unique and loving arrangement, I admire you. I love you. Bless you.

AF: For the conscious decision we have made to relate energetically as ‘bro’ and ‘sis’ and to play meaningfully, thank you. So far we have done this at a distance, and which one day we will in person, with just a modicum of synchronic happenstance working in our favour to make it possible .. So be it. I have SUCH admiration for how you navigate in
life – uniquely, in ways that seem to suit you. For adhering to your spiritual ways and means regardless of the mundane intrusions of day-to-day life, you have my respect. I trust this about you and don’t even know what I am talking about, really. I just ‘know’ that you are meditating, chanting, working the alchemy of your unique being on this planet, in favour of love, harmony and all things that you are here to help create for the planet, all sentience and particularly for the kids you, and I and we, know and love and for those we have yet to meet and love personally as we continue on our respective paths. May our paths cross with plenty of time and space to play, laugh and cavort in person one day. Here’s to that happening and to connecting virtually to continue to play and have fun doing what is beneficial for the world. Bless you. Love you.

AE: To be a genuine educator is special and something you do extraordinarily well, in my opinion. How? Through love. Through respect for each and every one’s sovereignty. Through feeling your way through conflicts, politics, vested interests and the other realities of ‘organised education’. I have witnessed you love difficult people with dysfunctional relationships into healthy inter-dependence so they could focus on being their best, individually and together, for the sake of teaching and guiding others. I love how you live authentically when it would be so much easier to live ‘under the radar’, quietly and
carefully. Instead, you share your love, your enormous skill with people and ideas, your voice and your passion for what is right, fair and just. I am proud to be your friend. I love and honour You.

MD: Whatever is happening in your world in these days of 3rd-year of Covid, may it bring you easily into a place of personal peace-fullness and better health. Last time we spoke, you were traveling a distance for a special medical procedure, long-overdue. Please know that I love and admire you. And I look forward to a day when we are in touch again. Recently, I met someone here in Maine who has had real life experiences which convinced him that Sasquatch are real. Because

of y/our conversations, I listen carefully when this subject comes up; and I am keeping an eye out for what is documented and considered fact amongst people who are willing to entertain this possibility. Love you. Blessings.

SH: I have seldom felt as welcomed to a place as genuinely and whole-heartedly as I feel as a result of your welcome to me in recent times. A mutual friend suggested we meet and from there you have extended your self, your home, your talents and interests in ways that, usually, only long-time friends do. And for this extension of yourself in my direction, I thank you deeply and sincerely. And, my gratitude goes beyond this, for you have so acceptingly embraced my absence from regular contact as I ‘deep dive’ for this and last (and maybe next) months. As ‘new friends’, that is an unusual understanding and
acceptance, and I must express my very sincere gratitude for your willingness to flow with ‘what is’ and not to punish me with judgement or withdrawal from contact (marginal and irregular as it is from me in a deep dive) for being who and doing what I am at the moment. Bless you.

JH: You have and do offer me reasons to laugh, often and easily. There is something about your humour and intelligence, variously in unique combination, that tickle me in ways I treasure – about you. Very well-read, scholarly without being pedantic (thank You!), dogmatic at times without being toooooo off-putting (to me anyway) because, I feel, you are fair in your assessments of people, and things, circumstances, situations. I often sense that you feel mis-understood and I suspect you often are. And so, my natural affection and love for you cause me to yearn for a time, whenever – now, soon, in future if it is to be so – that I feel you relax into all of who you are actually being ‘enough’ .. first and foremost for you, for others, for anything, everything and all that matters in life. And may you land in community with those who ‘get’ who you are, treasure you and your gifts, and where you feel and know that you are invited, welcome and warmly loved. Thank you. Bless you.

DS: What to say to you, whom I have known forever. To you who sends me clothes and shoes, coats and scarves to warm me where and when it is cold. Who gives me cause to cry at things poignant; to celebrate successes and milestones over many years; to wonder and feel such appreciation for your amazing creativity, beauty and talents; to share love with you and your progeny as ‘family of conscious choosing’; to shake our heads at turns of fortune both up and down, yours and mine, personal and collective, individual and of the world; to survive and thrive through divorces, deaths of friends, aging of
parents, riots and unrest in places we have lived and love. It’s a true kaleidoscope of living, loving, laughing, learning, leaning in, levitating and letting go and so, so, so much more. Love you. Thank you. Bless you!

And for today, this is my share. Thank you for receiving it, and for letting me know if/when you would prefer not to.
Many of us, soon, will turn our thoughts and attentions to consciously manifesting what we will be, do, experience, acquire, learn, enjoy in 2023. As we do, I invite you to imagine a world where all know ..
• What we cherish about where we live – in our relationships, homes, nations.
• Three things we would like to change to make things even better – in the world, our neighbourhoods, our countries.
• How we envision those changes happening.
• What our role is in those changes, now and going forward and whether we’re actively engaged in those actions at this time, or not.
• Why it’s important to think of the collective ‘forward story’ of humanity, all sentient life and this glorious planet.
Blessings be! Happy holidays, all, some or none, as you choose!

Love, Diane 🌹