Simple Joy of Hanging Out

Thursday, the 18th is my birthday. The way I love to spend my birthday or actually any day is to do something active in the nature. Last year some friends in the mountains got together and did a 8-mile peak-to-peak hike for my birthday going from the peak of Cerro Noroeste (8283 ft) to the summit of Mt. Pinos (8847 ft). So I wanted to do it again this year, but my schedule wasn’t cooperating to coordinate with the friends to hike on the 18th, which I was terribly bummed about.

As it turns out, after things got a bit shuffled, the friends decided to hike on Tuesday instead, which allowed me and my husband to go up for the day to join them. (This meant that we played hooky on broker caravan, though. ) This time we didn’t do a 8-miler, but a 2.5-mile to the summit and back plus some more strolling around the forest and field of wild irises (which by the way is not easy to catch as it’s hard to tell when they’re blooming.)

We ended up spending the morning hiking and hanging out in the afternoon to finish the day with a decadent dinner one of the friends cooked on his deck. I was so full from food and joy by the end of the day, and it was the perfect way to spend an early birthday.

I recently learned a word, Hygge (pronounced HOO-gə), which is apparently a Danish word for “a mood of coziness and comfortable conviviality with feelings of wellness and contentment” per Wikipedia. The context I keep hearing this word is a casual time spent with friends, basically “hanging out.” In our mountain community when some of other friends are also there, we often do this “casual get together” — although to get all these people at the same time like we did for my birthday is unusual. “Conviviality” it was! So I don’t take these simple moments for granted. I’m so grateful to be able to enjoy them with the mindful awareness how these fleeing moments are so precious. I do feel the same way about sitting together in meditation. Although we don’t talk to each other while we meditate, we do share a simple experience of sitting in silence. That’s precious.