Hygge (/Hue-gah/)

All my life I’ve been searching for this one word which can describe the happy, content feeling I feel whenever I am with the people I love or just by myself. Don’t quite picture what I mean?

I lay in my dormitory bed, with the lights turned off, and only a lampshade and twinkle lights to light the paperback novel I’m reading, twiddling with a loose thread from my cotton pyjamas.

I lean at the wall on our kitchen entryway to watch my family (Mama, Papa, my son and his Daddy) gather round for my birthday dinner, slicing cakes and carving chicken, the smell of butter lingering.

I lost in our rock-paper-scissors game so it’s me who should make the hot chocolate downstairs. I tell my darling to pause the movie we’re watching and not play it until I come back up but he still played it while I was away so I tickle/wrestle/strangle him under the sheets, hot choco and movie forgotten, and ended up lying next to each other to catch our breaths.

I let my son sit on my lap so I can smell the top of his head as he silently reads his favorite book, and all I can hear is him turning pages and the white noise of our fan.

I sit by the window on a bus ride home so I can let the wind blow my hair crazy as I daydream.

That, my friends, is hygge.

It is a Danish word which doesn’t have a direct translation to English, but can be linked to the words warm, coziness, charm, kinship, contentedness, reassurance…

A quick Google search led me to a site called Hygge House, and I love the way the word hygge is described:

Hygge is about being present enough to recognize and acknowledge an act, moment or feeling when the ordinary feels extraordinary.

And if not for Quinn, I wouldn’t have discovered this word. Check out her post which introduced me to this long-lost treasure of a word (Hail! I’ve finally found the accurate term!). She writes so well, yes? Who wouldn’t be inspired…

Let’s start February right!
Let’s all go live the hygge life! Hiya!