The Reading Room

As of today, our family has been on lockdown for 14 days. We've been sheltering in place long before our state was ordered to, because we have two people in our home that are at higher-than-average risk to COVID-19. We've gone through a lot of hand soap. A lot of hand soap. We've had to defend our snack stockpile from four growing boys that would love to finish it off in one day. We've watched a lot more Phineas & Ferb than normal due to the abundance of rain we've seen in these two weeks. Long story short, it has not been easy. But on the hard days, you can usually find me upstairs in the smallest room in our house. It has had a few names; I've not really been able to settle on one. The office, the den, the library... lately, I've been calling it “The Reading Room." It's my favorite room in our house. Not because it's amazing—it's a very small, simple room. But it's all in the mindset.

A few years ago, Alicia introduced me to this funny-sounding Danish/Norwegian word, hygge (pronounced “hue-guh"). It's a strange word for which the English language has no equivalent. It could be defined as coziness, contentment, happiness, familiarity, comfortable... but that still doesn't quite grasp the concept. It's more of an awareness; a state of mind. It's taking time to slow down and enjoy the little joys of life that we take for granted every single day. Something as simple as drinking a hot cup of tea, or lighting a candle, or reading a great book (pro tip: do all three together). It's not the tea or the candle or the book that “bring" hygge; hygge is the experience of gratitude and enjoyment of the tea, the candle, and the book. It makes you slow down. It makes you look at things differently. It makes you appreciate the things you have, and not so desperately pursue the things you don't. It's not something that can be bought or sold; it can only be experienced. It can only be lived.

Yesterday, I decided to make an attempt to capture the spaces of my reading room. It's not easy to do in a tiny room, but I made do. These photos are simply snapshots—windows into my hygge. This room is where I slow down. This room is where I sip hot tea (or coffee... mostly coffee) and read a book, and try to be as grateful as I can for every moment of it. Taking these photos was an exercise for me: look around the room and shoot what you find beautiful, peaceful, familiar, cozy, etc. I have a long list of books on my Amazon wishlist. And this room is far from my dream library. And as a selfish, average, self-satisfaction-seeking American, those dreams can distract me from the wonderful gift I have in this space. So I took one of my current favorite books, The Soul in Paraphrase by Leland Ryken, a cup of coffee, a couple of my Bibles, and shot away. Hopefully these photos will constantly remind me that happiness is not found in things, but in appreciating what I have. And maybe they will encourage you to see your home and living spaces in a different light, too. Because whether you see it or not, beauty is there.