This area for temporary and important messaging. COVID RESOURCES

Apply
Your Journey Starts Here
Apply
Donate
Support Our Mission
Donate

Who Needs a Hygge Today?

Photographer: Douglas Boldt http://boldtgallery.com/places/zambia/pst/homestay/candle.html
Image by: Douglas Boldt

I recently learned that Danish people live by a concept known as hygge (pronounced “heurrga,” with some guttural action involved).1 Though difficult to translate, the word—which can be a noun, an adjective, or a verb, and which may be related to our word hug—means something like “taking pleasure from gentle, soothing things.” Warm pools of light created by candles or artfully placed lamps are hygge. So are cozy fireside conversations, a snug blanket and a good book, and a hot bowl of soup on a dark, rainy day.
Clearly, the hygge phenomenon arose among a People of the Cold: hygge happens when pockets of warmth and light are created against a dark and frigid backdrop. Over time, at odds with Mother Nature, the Danes learned to create such pockets intentionally. Before electricity, hygge was a matter of survival; since, it has become a way of life.
As such, the practice has both aesthetic and sensual value—hygge moments are beautiful and pleasurable—but it also has social and spiritual value. Danish people are regularly named the “happiest people on earth” and are recognized on a societal scale for their low levels of materialism and high levels of gratitude. They seem genetically programmed to value experiences of light, warmth, and relationship. “We are hygge fundamentalists,” admits the CEO of a happiness think tank in Copenhagen.
So how might we central Texans, we southerners, we People of the Warm, practice the art of hygge? We might begin, as neophytes should, on the concrete level. We might use our coming “cold” season as an reminder to create literal pockets of warmth, comfort, and light for ourselves and for others. We might take that fifteen-minute work break for a steaming mug of tea. We might sit around a table with family or friends for meals. We might add a candle or a jar of garden herbs and hold hands for the saying of grace. With our kids, we might turn off the TV, pile under a blanket, and read a chapter book—one (and only one) chapter per night. We might invite a loved one for a sunrise coffee date. We might “do” the Advent wreath on dark Sunday evenings in December.
As we advance in the hygge way, though, we might experiment with its metaphorical possibilities. We might acknowledge that every person we meet—including our boss, our mother-in-law, our spouse, our next-door-neighbor, our child’s teacher, and even our ideological adversary on Facebook—is in some way wandering in the dark. It might be the dark of loneliness, the dark of fear, the dark of anger, the dark of powerlessness, or the dark of grief; it might be the dark of depression, of pretense, of boredom, of self-doubt, or of simple exhaustion. We might take the time to attend to the contours of just one person’s cold, dark landscape, and then take the time to create a pocket of warmth, light, and intimacy, tailor-made for him or her.
What would that look like? How might you hygge someone who needs it today?
 
claire-columbo_0Dr. Claire Colombo is the director of the Center for Writing and Creative Expression at the seminary and has served on the seminary’s adjunct faculty since 2012. As a freelance writer, she develops religion and language arts curricula for Loyola Press of Chicago. She is a regular contributor to their “Finding God” magazine and newsletters.

1 All factual information cited in this post, including the quotation in paragraph 3, comes from the article “Get cosy: Why we should all embrace the Danish art of ‘hygge” at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/wellbeing/mood-and-mind/Danish-cosy-hygge-lifestyle-cosiness-winter-warmth-Nordic-Danes-Scandi-home-interiors/. Many thanks to Andrea Farley for sharing this website with the SSW Writing as Ministry class on November 5, 2015.

Theological Degrees

Learn more about a Master of Divinity, a Diploma of Anglican Studies, or other programs that lead to ordination.

Clinical Mental Health Counseling

Learn about a CACREP accredited Master of Mental Health Counseling Degree.

Ways to Support

Learn about opportunities to support  Southwest through Annual Fund, Scholarships, and more.

Looking for Something?

Apply Now (MHC and MSF)

Apply Now (MDiv, MAR, and DAS)