This morning I was biking through the city. I left my apartment 7.55 am  and the weather was fine. I was wearing my running pants, a thick wool cardigan and my waxed male coat. When I left my morning meeting at 9am it was raining. Not pouring, but enough that my bike was soaked andI would be too since I was about to bike for about 20 minutes with a nice end track up the hill on which I live.

Mindfulness, I thought for myself.

It might sound silly, but it actually does work from time to time. Like when I have to do the dishes – a task I  shun as the pest most of the time. Feeling the warm water on my hands, and even managing to like the feeling of wet dough on my fingertips in the water.
So this morning I let my head fall back and tried for a couple of seconds to face the rain and feel the raindrops on my face. They slowly started to make streams in my face, finding their way down my neck. It was cold.

After maybe 10 seconds I found myself squeezing every possible wrinkle in my face, tensioning any muscle there was. Lesson number one this first Monday of the month:

Mindfulness does not work for me in the November rain.

So, I am preparing a little list of things that is good about this month. Feel free to fill in on your own favorites.

November. It sounds very nice to speak it out loud.

Mussels. You can get amazing ones from Zeeland. Book a trip to Belgium.

Lobster. Not my personal shellfish favorite, but it is the season for it.

Candle lit dinners. If you haven’t started yet, now is the time to start.

Pumpkin. They are still here. Pumpkin Pesto, Salad, anything.

Pomme Granate. I prefer the ones that are yellow and less pretty. They are sweeter.

Hamam. The season has started. I try to get myself scrubbed ones a month.

Journey. I love being at home in December so I tend to take the weekend trips in November.

Christmas food. My family task is to collect world delicacies for the Christmas dinner. This task starts in November and is perfect to combine with the weekend trips. BTW, I’d love to trade  bread for this!!!

Manicures. Whether you have them done or do them yourself, now is time.

Bad weather. You do not have to feel bad for staying inside a whole weekend. It’s ok.

I will start off with leaving Berlin. I will go to Marrakech since it contains the possiblity of 1) Hamam 2) Journey 3) Pomme Granate and 4) Candle lit dinners.