Good morning…
Always looking for the next book to teach, I mostly chose one book because it was short and simple, it had intriguing quotes and soulful pictures, and it was on the sale table at a local, eclectic store.
I fell in love with the first words of the introduction: “Hygge (pronounced “hoo-gah”) is a quality of presence and an experience of belonging and togetherness. It is a feeling of being warm, safe, comforted, and sheltered. Hygge is an experience of selfhood and communion with people and places that anchor and affirm us, give us courage and consolation. To hygge is to invite intimacy and connection. It’s a feeling of engagement and relatedness, of belonging to the moment and to each other. Hygge is a sense of abundance and contentment. Hygge is about being, not having.” (The Book of Hygge: The Danish Art of Contentment, Comfort, and Connection, 7)
Beautiful words come cascading down. Presence. Experience. Togetherness. Warm, safe. Comforted, sheltered. Communion with self, people, and places. Anchored, affirmed. Courage, consolation. Invite intimacy, connection. Feel, engage, relate. Belong to this moment and each other. Sense abundance, contentment. Focus on being rather than having.
As our community has spent a season learning about depression, physically and emotionally, spiritually and experientially. If depression truly is a deep state of disconnection, it seems “hygge” maybe God’s natural, holistic remedy.
