New Years Eve has been for many years time of celebration; being together with friends and/or family. Partying of some sort. I had many various experiences of it. But recently, and in general, I have been more interested in solitude, reflection and nurturing. And for some time now I have not enjoyed the idea of (Danish) New Years Eve so much - It is a craze of Fireworks in Copenhagen (It is currently legal for citizens to fire works in the days coming up to NYE, not just NYE!). It is super noise, very distracting, every dog I know starts barking at any sound of it and what it does to other animals I wouldn't want to even think if - I can just feel what it does to me.
So as a little change I celebrated NYE with my partner in the outskirts of Knäred, Sweden. Very secluded, a place of quite-ness, and just not much to do. Originally, we actually wanted to invite some friends for the activity. Not for brining a party together, but more so to celebrate friendship with people that we know longs for the same escapism from the city life. But, we were a little to late to invite people as most of them already had plans, so we ended up doing our own thing. The requirements were otherwise pretty basic, we wanted somewhere that was near the woods, possible nice trails, a sauna and simple cozy and warm spot. We found a little Airbnb and it has been really great.
Most of the time we didn't really do anything in particular. We didn't really have any plans. As we got here we melted down. We did some nice cooking with the always-so-interesting post-processed vegetarian alternative food. Had some tea. We went for some nice hikes around Söderåsens Nationalpark and Knäred. We reflected over the year and I had some really nice time working on my 2024 theme. Up until the days we were here, and during the days, I got to work a lot on our Polarsteps trips that I had procrastinated and I had so much fun looking back at some of our trips from 2023. The weather was super moody, but just well enough to make the small walks happen. There was no plans for anything happening on "the 12th hour", which felt rather nice.
It wasn't like we weren't entering a new year, we were still doing a ton of things that was in form, preparation of the new year, and I personally find that a lot more comforting than being wild and crazy. I am happy that 2024 is about to come. And I am really proud of what I have accomplished in 2023 - It has been an amazing year for myself, a lot of deeper work has happened in loving myself and what I do and for that I am grateful to see and experience.
Solitude NYE is very nice and I am looking forward to what I will try next year! Potential candidates: Silent Retreat (or similar), something like this but with Friends, camping trip, multi-day cabin party -- we will see!
Things we enjoyed here
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Lagan River was crazy wild during this season, but was beautiful to watch and be nearby - I was simple in awe over the volume of water that can go through a river... For a very long time!
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Tea every night I hope we can get to drink more tea, I always find it so vitalising.
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Sauna is a pure luxury, but, coming home from a long walk to jump into a shower and warm sauna is so good.
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Carpets the airbnb was filled with fluffy carpets. Every time we had socks off it felt so nice!
