Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Hygge Revisited

Ever since I upgraded (not voluntarily mind you) to the new Windows program, I have been totally at a loss for how to perform some of the easiest tasks.  I have absolutely no idea of how to locate and send a photo that I have downloaded, least of all, how to post photos from new selections, on my blog.  Thus, no pictures to prove any points that I may make.  You have to use your imagination.
Well, that certainly gets me off the hook about posting a "before" photo of myself.  I have seen dozens of them on various bariatric sites lately and think those people awfully brave.  I can hardly look into the mirror at my skimpily-clad torso.  I'm not going to subject anyone to the same horror.

I will do my best to create pictures in words.  Not of myself, necessarily, but of all of those things and people who make the road ahead look so much less slippery.  My snow tires, my ice melters. Easy to come up with metaphors at this time of the year when there is snow on the ground, black ice everywhere just waiting for that accident to be about to happen.  Easy when the days are short, the nights long and dark.

I wrote about Hygge, that lovely Danish happening, a lot of posts ago.  Two years ago, during a long and hard Winter, I buried myself in a tomb, surrounded by oh, so much snow and ice.  I made the decision that it wasn't going to get the best of me and I pursued some home-based remedies, following the instruction of a lovely web-based woman who taught a course in how to survive it all.
Week by week, she offered new ideas and instruction in what basically amounted to, how to create a lifestyle that would be called "cozy" or "homey", and she introduced her students to the Danish word for all of this plus so much more, "Hygge".  I was the first on my block to know about this but certainly not the first in the World.  The Danes have been living a life filled with Hygge for centuries. That's one of the reasons we like them so much.  They make us feel cozy and cute with a high degree of seriousness and integrity.  They say it's okay to hunker down in the Winter, to gather together with friends around fires, drinking whatever makes you rosy.  Cocoa is in that category for some.  Mulled wine, for others.  It really doesn't matter, as long as there's a group and a willingness to support each other in finding overall dreaminess to the long day or night.  "Hygge " is one of those words that can't really be defined.  But, last week's Wall Street Journal did a very good job in letting readers know of its existence and the article served as a great reminder to me.

Without being a Dane (although I have several good Danish friends), I realize that I create Hygge (pronounced by the way, hug-ah), in my life every time I include friends.  I have so many friends to hygge with and so many opportunities to light candles and drink warmth.  If anything is going to bring me closer to success in my bariatric pursuit, it will be the practice of Hygge and the warmth of friendship from those who have vowed to be there for me, that will carry me on.  

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