Monday 5th June: 3 is a Hygge Number

Yesterday I met with Jenny Carr. She’s a member of the Hygge Nook over on Facebook, and comes from Worsley in Manchester. There were three of us for the first Hygge Nook Hook up; Sarah (that’s the daughter & taking the photo), Jenny and me.

Three is a hyggely number, though, and it’s much easier to get to know someone in a small group. We ate our ice cream and talked. Of life, home, work, of everything. And after a couple of hours, we said goodbye and went back into reality.

That’s a very different reality again this week in the UK. A rather scarier reality than we really wanted to be in. The sort of reality where youth and fun and beauty is being attacked again by nasty forces in the world at large. Where we look around and wonder just…. why? Why would anybody do that?

Sunday has been a strange day. That might be because as a family we sat up until past 1am because the news was so unbelievable that we had to stay to be sure that it was evil… pure evil… rather than madness that had struck.

With the T word and the E word, the news is not a positive experience for anyone at the moment. I find myself in a quandary. Do I stay grounded and real, or escape to a pink world of happiness? The news is definitely uhygge at the moment: do I turn it off, or should I be the pragmatist I am?

Part of my hygge is that it isn’t 24/7. It’s not an escape from reality. It’s a pause and an oasis in a world that can be falling apart around me. I’m writing this watching the Manchester concert, feet tapping, singing along to the songs that I know, all the while knowing that this concert for 22.5 is already spotted with the blood of 3.6. I will not escape. Not for ever. I will pause, I will recognise my hygge moments, I will cry (like I have a lot this weekend) and then I will breathe, and pray, and rest.

And then I will get on with life. Imperfect, beautiful, wonderful, heartbreaking, mind stretching life.