Grateful in Denmark

Living the Dream, One Fence Post at a Time

Our set up and work- lots of beautiful greenery.

Right now, we’re tucked away in a magical corner of Denmark, surrounded by nature, animals, and a surprising amount of peace for such a full life.

We’ve been busy—putting up fences, weeding the garden, clearing overgrown paths—but even in the sweat and dirt, there’s a rhythm to it that feels grounding. Maybe it’s the fresh air, or maybe it’s the way the horses watch us with calm curiosity. Seven of them, to be exact. Alongside three friendly dogs and sixteen energetic chickens. The property is modest but expansive in spirit: a small house wrapped in fields, a veggie garden full of promise, and a sparkling little lake tucked in the back like a secret.

A fallen tree in the pond. And swans! With 5 babies in tow.

We’ve balanced our working days with little Danish adventures—beach walks, fossil digs at the local quarry (we found some!), and slow evenings watching the wind play in the grass. It’s dreamy here. But even in the dream, we’re being pulled toward Sweden. Funny how life flows like that. Just a week ago, we had no Workaway or WWOOF options there. Now, suddenly, we have too many. We’re doing video calls, reading profiles, tuning into our intuition, and trying to feel what’s next—not overplanning, just sensing the next right place where we might linger longer.

And through it all—through the shifting decisions, the physical work, and the quiet moments—we’re holding tight to our gratitude practice.

Because gratitude is more than just saying “thank you.” It’s an alignment practice. A way of coming home to ourselves no matter where we are on the map.

A huge quarry nearby- where all you have o do is look, sift and break stuff open and you're basically guaranteed to find something- and we all did!

Gratitude roots us in the present moment. When we pause to feel thankful—for the neigh of a horse, the warmth of the sun on our backs, or a fossil found in the sand—we stop grasping at the future. We land. Fully. And from that grounded place, our hearts expand.

Science backs this up. Practicing gratitude regularly has been shown to:

• Increase happiness and life satisfaction

• Improve sleep and immune function

• Reduce anxiety and depression

• Strengthen relationships

• Make it easier to regulate emotions and cope with challenges

From a HeartMath perspective, gratitude is a powerful "coherent" emotion. When we intentionally feel gratitude (not just think about it), our heart rhythm becomes more harmonious. This state of heart coherence improves our brain function, lowers stress hormones, and allows our body to operate more efficiently. It’s literally a rebalancing tool.

We haven't been by a coast for a while so this was super cool, beach day!

Even more beautiful: over time, gratitude changes our brain. Through neuroplasticity, the brain rewires itself around repeated emotional patterns. So when we practice feeling thankful, we actually build more pathways for joy, optimism, and resilience. We become more likely to notice beauty, more inclined to expect good things, and more skilled at creating them.

Gratitude supports manifestation, not by magically attracting things to us, but by placing us in a frequency where we can better receive what’s aligned for us. It helps us see opportunities instead of obstacles, and trust that life is always conspiring in our favor—even when we don’t know what comes next.

Guess what guys, more cherries! So this time I made cherry pie. It was sooo good.

So today, as we finish up clearing a path or harvesting kale from the garden, we’re not just checking tasks off a list. We’re breathing it in. Feeling the gift of this moment. Smiling about the fossil we found. Laughing at the dogs tumbling over each other. Honoring how good it feels to not know everything, and still trust what’s unfolding.

We don’t know exactly where in Sweden we’ll end up. But we know we’ll arrive there from a place of gratitude. And that makes all the difference.

Most likely we'll be moving on already in the next week or so. This is the shortest stay we've had so far. We're trying something new. Maybe we stay longer in the next spot, maybe we move around more this time.

We're changing things up again to try something new and reflect afterwards on if we liked it or not. Decided to do it differently this time (before we've always tried to stay one place for a month or more) to see how it goes. Learned this from some stuff I'm researching for my resilience courses. Sometimes you just gotta make a decision (or let your kids make decisions for themselves- even if you know it might not be the right one for them!) and go with it. Most important is to then, after you've moved forward with the decision, to reflect back on it and really feel into if it was the right decision- but more on decisions next time...for now: what are you grateful for?