Heavenly Hygge

Have you discovered "hygge" yet?  No?  trust me, as you share the same universe as the rest of us western capitalist consumers you will.... and very soon, as it's going to be the new BIG THING by Christmas !!!   so says The Bookseller Magazine anyway.   tatty-bye Little Book Of Comfort - hello Little Book Of Hygge.   sayonara Mindfulness For Dummies - welcome How To Hygge.  adios Road Less Travelled - buenos dias The Art of Hygge.   

It might help if we knew how to pronounce it, i mean.... how can you recommend something you can't articulate? 

                                      HYGGE  =  hoo-ga.... sort of.   

it's Danish you see so our tongues become tangled if we try to be precise.   and while we are on the topic of non-preciseness, its definition in English loosely translates as "cosiness", very loosely as we don't have a word that encapsulates the concept and it doesn't have to involve heat.   hygge is about physical and emotional companionship, shared meals, socialising with family and friends, cocooning in a duvet with cocoa  and toast,  all things convivial.   a country that cowers beneath night skies 17 hours a day for six months of the  year deserves the right to conceptualise that heavenly feeling of being snug and safe against the dark don't you think?

                                       

It's the passivity of hygge that appeals to me.   when you think of the wellness fads marketeers have force-fed us in the past they tend to involve effort.   to be safely feng-shuied involves the moving of bed-heads and wardrobes.  easy peasy if it's the fur coat, lamp post, Narnia variety, blood, sweat and squashed fingers if you settled for IKEA last time the bedroom needed an upgrade.    meditation entails an emptying of the mind and a mind as busy and obscure as mine takes a lot of emptying, an exhausting  amount of shoving random epiphanies out through  doors of perception and shoulder leaning to prevent those pesky thoughts sneaking back in through the fire escape.   whoever knew concentration needed a bouncer?  

Successful hyggeing requires being comfortable with an element of guilt free hedonism, an ability to give oneself permission to step aside from the demands of life for a time and indulge the soul, surely stress is its antithesis.    when i consider my hygge buddies they all have the ability to kick off shoes, lean back and laugh long and hard at the absurdities of the world we find ourselves sharing.  being in each other's orbit justifies long coffee shop encounters, rambling, embellished tall tale telling and whispered confidences in the safety of each other's affection.   

I wish you all many happy hours of hygge between now and Christmas, before it becomes just another fad.