I Want Cozy.

Yes, I want cozy. I want beauty. I want peace. 

With cold overnight temperatures comes my desire for cozy.

I want cozy clothes, such as heavy socks, warm sweaters and sweatshirts, and I want hot soup and chili. I want to settle into my comfortable reading chair with my Kindle, perhaps with some soft music in the background and a steaming cup of tea on the chairside table.

I have a beautiful southwest style home, but I don't consider it cozy. Interior decorating isn't my thing, although I long for some cozy touches. The house is very comfortable, and I love it, but cozy it isn’t.

I want beauty. I recently returned from a photography trip to Yosemite National Park, a place of stunning beauty. So I have been enjoying reviewing and processing my hundreds of digital images. I will have some of them printed to replace a few of the images currently hanging in my house. 

I also want peace. This country continues to be anything but a peaceful nation. There is so much discord. There is disagreement over vaccine mandates, over mask mandates, and over vaccination of children age 5 to 11 years old. The climate battle continues. Businesses continue to struggle, and in some cases, close due to a shortage of people willing to work. Demands for free everything -- from health care to child care to college -- continue. We all know that nothing is free. Someone has to pay for all these free things, either the everyday citizen or the ultra wealthy, who so far pay little to no income taxes. 

I continue to decrease the time I waste on social media. Why do so many people feel they need to post negative comments about everything? I frequently see an ad for a vegetarian 'turkey' for Thanksgiving. There is a long list of derogatory comments, complete with a 'vomit' emoji. If these people don't want to eat a vegetarian alternative to turkey, fine. Just move on. Hide the ad if it offends them. They criticize the product for its artificial ingredients when there are, in fact, no artificial ingredients, something they would know if they bothered to read the ingredient list. Do these people not have better ways to spend their time than trolling social media posts? What joy do these people take from spreading their negativity and hate?

For me, I will enjoy my beautiful home, cozy or not. I will try to find joy, and to spread joy, by being kind to others and by sharing what I have with those who have nothing. That will create a sense of coziness in my heart. And I will find beauty in my images of Mother Nature's creations.