Hyggelig and why sitting in a Danish airport made me think about Life.
I’m writing this sitting in the middle of Copenhagen airport. It’s 11am on a Saturday morning and watching the world go by as I like to do in airports.
I like sitting in airports and often find myself thinking about the people who are all around me. Where are they going? Why are they going there? What is their own individual story?
Are they visiting family, travelling for work or going to a funeral to say goodbye to someone they loved? Are they looking forward to the trip, already excited by the adventure, bored of the waiting or petrified of flying? Are they happy or sad? Is someone missing them at home?
I don’t know what it is about airports, be it English ones, Danish ones and probably the Japanese one Charlotte and I are on our way too….but I find them deeply fascinating places. However it’s not only the people that make this Danish airport interesting.
You see despite only visiting Denmark once before, on a Sunday when everything seemed to be shut, I am a fan of Danish culture. I’ve read a lot about Scandinavian culture and I reckon us Brits could learn a lot about life from the Danes.
As I sit here in this airport in the far distance there’s a sign of a smiling lady…beside her in bright bold red letters is a sentence…
“SHOPPING BECOMES EVEN MORE HYGGELIG”
Now this could be a billboard in any shopping centre of airport in the world….apart from one word.
HYGGELIG.
Now if you didn’t know it’s derived from the word Hygee and means nice, friendly, cozy, warm and snug. However for many Danes it means more than this…and It’s a word I’ve often found difficult to explain. However in the words of the ‘Visit Denmark’ site…
Hygge (and Hyggelig) means creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life with good people.
For me, this is what life is about.
Enjoying the good things in life with good people….
This is why when we sit down with our clients at Cervello the conversation is always about more than the money. It’s about their lives. It’s about helping them use the money to create memories that will last. It’s about using money to empower a good life…
…it’s about helping our clients enjoy the good things in life with good people.
You see that’s might not what be what you’d expect a financial planner to do but when we can help someone finish work a couple of years sooner than they expected, when we empower people to do stuff they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.…when we encourage them to be even more ‘Hyggelig’
We believe that’s a job well done!
