It has been a full couple of months: wrapping up my teaching credential (phew!), completing my first year in the classroom (wonderfully chaotic, challenging, and rewarding), and traveling to India—much of it on my own.

Along the way, there was also the joy of planning a mini Paris adventure for a dad-and-daughter trip for my DH and DD (right in the middle of that heat wave!), reconnecting with family and friends, and celebrating a beautiful family wedding.

Somewhere in all that beautiful chaos – of endings and beginnings, learning and reconnecting, planning and celebrating – this little corner of the internet waited patiently for me to return.

And as I find my way back, I realize it wasn’t just experiences that stayed with me, but words—quiet companions that helped name the feelings, moments, and memories of this season.

13 Beautiful Words That Walked Beside Me This Season

Perhaps you’ll discover a new favorite among them. Or perhaps one of these words already knows your story—just as I sometimes wondered whether I chose these words, or whether they quietly chose me.

Resfeber

Pronounced: REHS-feh-ber | Swedish

Origin: Swedish; from res (“journey/travel”) + feber (“fever”)
Literally: “travel fever”

That quiet flutter before a journey begins – the lists, the packing, the imagining – where excitement and uncertainty sit side by side, waiting to take flight.

Solivagant

Pronounced: so-LIV-uh-gant | Latin

Origin: Latin soli (“alone”) + vagari (“to wander”)
A poetic word for a lone wanderer

Traveling alone has its own rhythm; just you, your thoughts, and the freedom to wander both outward and inward.

While this trip was done sans my DH and the kids, I did have travel companions during my mini-trips within India. Yet, there was still a wonderful sense of independence in setting my own pace, making my own choices, and embracing little adventures—especially because my companions were wonderfully accommodating.

Heimweh

Pronounced: HIME-vay | German

Origin: German heim (“home”) + Weh (“ache/pain”)
Literally: “home-sickness” or “an ache for home”

Home is not only the place where we were born. Sometimes, it is also the place we have built through years of memories, routines, relationships, and everyday moments.

While visiting the familiar streets, flavors, voices, and warmth of my childhood home in India, I found myself missing the home I have created in the US – the people waiting for me, the little rhythms of daily life, and the spaces that have slowly become mine.

Perhaps that is the quiet complexity of belonging: sometimes, our hearts carry more than one home.

Querencia

Pronounced: keh-REN-see-ah | Spanish

Origin: Spanish querer (“to desire/love”)
A place where one feels drawn, safe, and strong

And perhaps that’s the beautiful complexity of belonging. Home reveals itself in unexpected ways: in familiar laughter, shared meals, warm embraces, and the quiet comfort of places where you can simply be yourself. During this trip, I found glimmers of that feeling everywhere.

Natsukashii

Pronounced: na-tsu-ka-SHEE | Japanese

Origin: Japanese natsukashii (懐かしい)
A feeling of pleasant nostalgia

Some memories return not with longing, but with quiet joy that is wrapped in warmth, inviting you to pause, smile, even cry tears of joy mingled with nostalgia, and linger with them for just a moment.

Mudita

Pronounced: moo-DEE-ta | Sanskrit/Pali

Origin: Sanskrit muditā
Joy in the happiness of others

There is something quietly beautiful about rejoicing in another’s happiness – their milestones, their triumphs, their simple moments of delight – as though they were your own.

Ubuntu

Pronounced: oo-BOON-too | Nguni Bantu languages, especially Zulu/Xhosa

Origin: Southern African philosophy
“I am because we are”

Teaching has a way of reminding me that learning is never one-sided. Family reminds me that love stretches across time and distance. Travel reminds me that kindness often comes from strangers. Ubuntu somehow holds all of those truths together: I am because we are.

Meraki

Pronounced: meh-RAH-kee | Modern Greek

Origin: Greek meraki (μεράκι)
Doing something with soul, creativity, and love

The work may be imperfect, and the days may be long, but when you leave a piece of your heart in what you do, it lingers in ways that truly matter.

Sisu

Pronounced: SEE-soo | Finnish

Origin: Finnish
Inner strength, grit, and perseverance

Not every challenge demands grand gestures. Sometimes perseverance is simply showing up again and again—steadily, quietly, and with unwavering resolve.

Komorebi

Pronounced: koh-mo-reh-bee | Japanese

Origin: Japanese 木漏れ日
Ki (tree) + more (leak through) + hi (sunlight/day)
Sunlight filtering through trees

Sunlight filtering through leaves, laughter lingering between conversations, the stillness between plans—beauty often dwells in the moments we almost overlook. And somehow, komorebi has always made me think of dust motes drifting through those shafts of light: ordinary things transformed into quiet moments of wonder.

Sonder

Pronounced: SON-der | English (coined word)

Origin: Coined by John Koenig for The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
The realization that every person has a complex inner life

Every passerby, every student, every fellow traveler carries a story as rich and complex as your own. Remembering that makes the world feel both wonderfully vast and deeply connected. Learning that anew each day reminds me to lead with curiosity rather than assumptions.

Eunoia

Pronounced: yoo-NOY-ah | Greek

Origin: Ancient Greek eúnoia (εὔνοια)
“Beautiful thinking” or goodwill toward others

A beautiful mind is not one untouched by challenges, but one that continues to choose kindness, hope, curiosity, and grace, even when doing so takes intention.

Kairos

Pronounced: KY-ross | Ancient Greek

Origin: Ancient Greek καιρός
The right, opportune moment

The right moment rarely arrives with fanfare. It appears quietly, after the work has been done and the lessons have been learned, gently inviting us to begin again.

This Quiet Return

Looking back, I realize these weren’t just thirteen beautiful words. They were quiet companions through a season of growth, change, travel, learning, and gratitude. Each gave a name to a feeling, a memory, or a moment that might otherwise have slipped quietly into the background.

Perhaps that’s one of the things I love most about words. They help us notice. They help us remember. They help us connect — with ourselves, with one another, and with the world around us.

As I return to this little corner of the internet, I’m looking forward to sharing more words, more books, more poetry, and more stories with you in the months ahead.

And Now, the End of This Post

Thank you for waiting while I stepped away to live these stories before returning to write them. Sometimes, that’s where the best stories begin.

I would love to know: which of these words spoke to you the most? Or is there a beautiful word from another language that has stayed with you through a season of your own? Share it with me in the comments—I would love to discover it.

Until next time, may you find your own Kairos—the perfect moment to begin again—and may your days be filled with Meraki, Mudita, and the quiet comfort of knowing that home can be found in more than one place.

Happy reading, happy writing, and happy word wandering! I hope you’ll take some time to wander through the other wonderful posts shared by fellow bloggers in the lovely Thursday13 community as well.