I’ve been craving cozy things lately. Soup, stuffed animals, blankets fresh from the dryer… I essentially want to live in an igloo made of pillows. That's my life goal right now. You see the sad puppy wrapped in a cozy blanket? Well, he's sad because he needs more cozy things. So do I! So do you! But luckily, I am here to advocate for a general increase in coziness.
Of course, this desire for cozy things is right on schedule — I practically could have put it on the calendar. For one thing, it’s holiday season, so cozy things just go with the territory. Christmas is probably the coziest holiday in existence (but if there’s a cozier holiday out there, please let me know). Think about it. Christmas trees, candlelight, baking Christmas cookies, snuggling up in front of the fire, mulled wine, eggnog, staying in your pajamas all day… don’t you feel cozy just thinking about it?
My cozy obsession is also being backed up splendidly this year by the pop-culture phenomenon of hygge. Hygge originated in Denmark and supposedly has no equivalent in the English language, but all you really need to know is that it’s cozy-on-crack and may be the secret to happiness, eternal youth, and millions of subscribers to the social media platform of your choice. At least that’s what all the millennials are saying these days. And as a card-carrying millennial, I have read The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking and I fully endorse the idea of hygge. Luckily for me, so does everyone else, so there’s even more coziness in the air than usual this holiday season.
As if I needed any more reasons to embrace coziness with especial fervor this year, there’s finals (hmmm… to write a research paper or to write about hot chocolate and blankets?), the weather (rather gloomy in this corner of the world), and the news. For instance: will we go to war with North Korea? Will the President get impeached for obstruction of justice? Will the gun violence ever go down? Will Bitcoin be adopted as a universal currency? Will SMTs catch on? And what on earth is going on with Venezuela? There's so much uncertainty in the world, it's enough to give me a recurring daydream about snuggling up in front of a fireplace with approximately 500 blankets and a good mystery novel.
Why, you ask? Because coziness is the opposite of uncertainty! After all, what makes something cozy? Cozy things are safe and familiar, like an old family quilt or your childhood teddy bear. Uncertainty has no place in a cozy setting. (Uncertainty does have a place when we’re talking about adventure. But we’re not adventuring right now. We’re cozy-ing. Because that’s totally a word.)
If we can't all become zen masters, at least we can all enjoy a cozy evening in front of the fireplace. So grab a hot chocolate and a fuzzy blanket, because coziness is a totally achievable defense mechanism against everything from the cold to Bitcoin instability. Say it with me now: coziness is the answer to everything.
Wishing you a cozy holiday season,
The Owl Hours
P.S. To get you off to a good start, here are a few recommendations:
A cozy book - The Little Book of Hygge
A cozy food blog - A Cozy Kitchen
A cozy normal blog - Simply Danish Living
A cozy movie - My Neighbor Totoro
A cozy anime - Tamayura Hitotose
A cozy fireplace - Literally A Video of A Fireplace
All images provided by Pixabay.