I missed my first weekly blog post last week. I prioritised other things, as we were spending our first week in Denmark and prepping the move from hotel room to house. This week we’re in our home, some boxes are unpacked though lots unopened and ready to unbox. It feels good to be in though! The hardest part now over.
We’ve been in our house 3 days now and have already been greeted by many of the neighbours. Yesterday evening we even got flowers and at times it’s reminded me of Cheers, that TV series based in a bar where everyone knows everyone. That’s our neighbourhood.
I love this blog yet the post specifically on friendship hasn’t been my experience so far. It’s obviously early days, but even in a restaurant last week when my wife went to the toilet, the man at the table next to me started chatting. He admired how we were with our kids, acknowledging it was hard sometimes. We had an interesting conversation about living in Denmark, and after 20 minutes we left for home and never did get his name. It was a nice casual chat with a friendly stranger.
On our first day in the house a neighbour came around to introduce himself. He has a young family and already yesterday my wife and 2 sons spent some of the afternoon at their house with his kids and their amazing zip line (yep, they have a zip line in the garden!)
Another neighbour offered to drive us to the shops for groceries as they noticed we don’t have a car. Another called by to offer their tools if we needed some for putting up curtains etc. and another to help with choosing kindergarten for our oldest son. We felt lucky to live in the neighbourhood we did in the uk, where neighbours were just as nice and helpful, yet here it’s a definite upgrade.
One of the last things a teary neighbour in the UK said to us as we left, was that she thinks we’ll always have nice neighbours as we’re nice people. It was a touching moment as I’d just been telling her what a nice neighbour she’d been. Perhaps she’s right? I like to think we’re nice people (we certainly try to be) and maybe being nice brings out the nice in others?
While meditating with headspace recently, it asked me to choose someone in my life I don’t like (it was relationship meditation). After many minutes I still didn’t have anyone. It’s not that there aren’t difficult people in my life, it’s that I don’t have anyone I dislike.
Since realising this I’ve been hugely grateful. Even where I work it’s been the same recently, where previous jobs have put me with people very difficult to like, my last UK role in Brighton surrounded me with nice people.
I’m hopeful my new role in Copenhagen is full of nice people too, just like our new neighbourhood is. Perhaps if not, then me being nice whatever the situation will bring out the nice in them? I’ll keep you posted.