Beauty

As I was developing my goals for this year (which I’ll be sharing another day), I started thinking about a word that encapsulated so much of what I was thinking about and planning for the year ahead. I settled on “Beautify”.

This was not actually my first idea. The first word I seriously considered was “Cheerfulness” after I read Lanier’s latest post. She and some others I read always exhibit a sense of cheerfulness that I am not naturally inclined toward. But then I realized that if I picked the word “Cheerfulness” I might as well put a hot pink sticky note on my forehead that tells God “Send trials this year” and I really don’t want to do that. I fervently prayed a few decades ago for God to make me a patient person and I feel like I’m still reaping what I sowed with that prayer. God may choose to send trials, but at this point in my life I’m not actively soliciting them.

So as I thought about what I’m writing up in my goals for the approaching year, I kept coming back to the idea of creating more beauty in every part of my life and in the ways I impact the lives of others.

Some people might not care about aesthetics, but they matter a great deal to me. Looking shabby, feeling shabby, and being surrounding by shabby things frankly depresses me. It is a drain on my mental health and overall well-being.

We Are Created For Beauty

I think a big part of that is due to the fact that we were created for a beautiful world. Just a quick glance at creation clearly shows us that God loves beauty and values it as important. If we’re created in His image (and we are) then beauty matters to us as well because it’s in our very being.

I recently republished one of my very early posts, Practicality and the Death of Beauty. I wrote it about a year before we discovered we were expecting Caroline so we were in the stage of our life where it was just the two of us. Some of the things I did at that time I no longer do. I’ve added other things. But no matter what season of life I’ve found myself in, beauty has always been important to me. Beautifying my life isn’t frivolous, but necessary.

Women and Beauty

Christians need to lead the way in reclaiming beauty as a worthy and noble goal. We live in such a profane and ugly culture in many ways. Women, in particular, are encouraged to be vulgar in the name of being free, empowered, and “authentic.” But the truth is we can be free in Christ and empowered to use our gifts and abilities provided by the Holy Spirit without any need for vulgarity. To think we must be ugly or even profane in order to be powerful is a false choice. God is bigger than that. He does not require that we compromise the beauty that comes from a spirit of loveliness in order to be effective in impacting the world around us.

Nor should we be ashamed that we recognize and celebrate beauty. There is nothing weak or backward thinking in appreciating and creating beauty. It is a necessary part of life and one that all emotionally and spiritually healthy people will naturally gravitate toward. Those of us who are moved and gifted in this direction need to bring beauty to a world in desperate need of it, even if they don’t realize it.

So although I already emphasize beauty as part of creating a cozy life of peace, understanding, joy, beauty, and faith, I’m deliberately choosing the world “Beautify” as a reminder of what I’m purposing to do in my life and here.

“Beautify” is a verb and is therefore an action. It’s not just me looking at pretty things. It’s me choosing to actively seek out, create, and promote beautiful aspects of life in all I do.

Do you live and love the American cozy life? I do and I’ll let you in on a secret. I think it’s way better than the Danish hygge that everyone is talking about.

I recently read a short anecdote written by an American man with an extensive English heritage. He expected to eventually move to England and make his home there because he felt so drawn to it. He had the opportunity to spend several months in England and while there was stunned to discover that while his ancestry might be English, he was fully American. (This point was especially driven home on Thanksgiving when none of the people around him even knew what Thanksgiving was. They thought it was another name for Christmas.) Until that point he hadn’t realized the depth of his Amercian-ness and how different it was from being English. He also realized that he was completely an outsider from the perspective of the citizens of the very old city where he was located.

Furthermore, this man discovered that he was deeply grateful to be American. He realized the rich heritage multiple generations of his family had built in America and how much that mattered to him when he was separated from it and placed in a country that was not and never could be his home.

Lately I have been pondering what it means to be an American and how we do things here. Although I trace much of my ancestry back to Sweden, England, Germany, and the Netherlands, I am not Swedish, English, German, or Dutch. To be sure, each of those cultures has impacted my life in some way.

For example, I grew up in a Swedish Baptist denomination and I still feel the impact of that to this day. My father’s family was heavily Dutch Reformed and there are parts of it that I have embraced at times. I have always felt intensely drawn to England and Scotland and assume it must be something in my DNA.

But I am thoroughly and gratefully an American.

Hygge is Danish, Not American

A few years ago, I wrote a post about hygge. I had no idea at the time I was on the cutting edge of writing about the topic. I simply saw the topic pop up online, it fit well with topics I think about (such as simple living and cozy living), and I wrote a post about it. Since then there has been an explosion of books about everything hygge. It has turned into a huge commercial enterprise.

But hygge is not an American concept and, try as we might to adopt its use here, we will never fully understand it because we’re not Danish. Surveys may announce that Danish people are some of the happiest people in the world, but the reasons for those results are significantly more complex than most Americans realize. There is far more to the Danish mindset than having a national understanding called hygge that helps them deal with the gray winters of the north.

Much of what contributes to their perceived high levels of happiness cannot be replicated elsewhere, especially the overwhelmingly homogeneous ethnic make-up of their country and the incredibly tight-knit social networks that develop from their early schooling and continue on into adulthood. There is absolutely nothing wrong with their strong ethnic identity or strong social networks, but that uniformity cannot possibly be replicated here in America.

But we don’t need to worry about trying to understand hygge or replicate it here. We already have something very similar in America.

Does it have a national name like hygge?

No.

But I think many of us instinctively do our America-inspired cozy life already, especially those of us who live in the four season parts of the United States. We do it quietly and without commercial fanfare, but it happens just the same. It isn’t something we saw in the newspaper or online and added to our life. It is how we are naturally wired to approach our life.

Sometimes we call it nesting. Sometimes we call it feathering our nest. Making a home. But whatever it is, it is American cozy living and I think if we dig deep it is in part an outgrowth of two things – the pioneer spirit and the thriftiness of the Great Depression.

What is the American Cozy Life?

The cozy life or cozy living is what I call the coming together of purposeful living, simple living, and faithful living.

Purposeful Living – We make purposeful choices rather than going with the flow, even if it means being different from the crowd.

Simple Living – We include only those things in our life that bring real value.

Faithful Living – We make choices that align with our faith and core beliefs.

Cozy living is living simply and purposefully according to our deeply held beliefs.

The Cozy Life is a Mindset

Cozy living in America is a mindset. It is a way of approaching how you use your space, your time, and your energy. When I wrote about hygge a few years ago, I said this:

Whenever I hear people complain about the cloudiness or the crummy weather, I reply with something like, “It’s not crummy weather! It’s cozy weather!” Just thinking about the gray outside in a different way changes your mindset.

Cloudiness outside means the fire burns a bit more brightly, the lamps glow a bit more, and home is more of a peaceful refuge from the darkness. It’s a mindset to be cultivated.

Cozy living is about looking at what you have, being grateful, and sharing it with others.

It is looking realistically at the world around us and choosing to make the best of our little sanctuary.

It is knowing that no matter how gloomy or discouraging circumstances might be outside our home, we have the choice to bring joy, peace, and faith to our little corner of the world.

Cozy living is contentment.

Cozy Living is about Relationships

People who embrace American cozy living tend to be people who are caring. They value relationships. Cozy living isn’t about being a hermit (although it can be a perfect fit for people who are especially introverted!).

American cozy life people are hospitable. They might be introverts who only invite a few people over at a time for coffee and conversation around the fire. Or they might be people who throw open their home for games and snacks to anyone who wants to come over after the evening church service.

They believe in relationships and see their cozy home and life as a way to build and nurture them.

Cozy Living is Realistic Luxury

My home is not filled with what would be called luxurious items. But my cozy home is filled with the things that make life feel luxurious to me.

Bookcases filled with beloved titles, a fireplace, a beadboard kitchen backsplash, a pretty countertop (that is not granite), a cozy chair and blanket by the fire.

Cross stitch samplers on the wall, a piano with a hymnal, a chiming clock.

Candles in the windows.

These are the luxurious items that fill my home.

The books are old favorites, the fireplace is my happy place. The beadboard backsplash makes me happy and I had no interest in granite countertops when we replaced the old ones. I wanted a pretty, feminine laminate that was cozy and comfortable.

The cozy chair and blanket by the fireplace are both probably at least thirteen years old.

But it all feels luxurious to me because it brings me joy and peace. And that is what matters.

Again, no one is going to come into our home and be impressed with what we own. But ever since we have been married, people have always commented on how warm and cozy our home is whether we were in our first apartment together, the 1928 Craftsman house on a tiny city lot we renovated, or our current colonial. Our home has always been a welcoming, cozy place.

Cozy may be a code word for small in real estate listings, but when someone calls my home cozy I take it as the highest compliment.

Cozy Living Embraces the Home Base

Cozy living is for those who fully embrace the joy and importance of home. When our home is cozy, it is filled with the things and people that matter the most to us and enrich our lives. We don’t need to run out and search for purpose outside of our home. It is already there. We may invite people into our home to share in our coziness (and should!), but cozy living is satisfied with the blessings of hearth and home.

There is joy and peace to be found there.

People may enjoy the coziness of home so much they choose to spend all their time there. They may work from home, they may homeschool, or they may operate a small home-based business of some kind. For people who are happiest amongst the coziness of home, being there all the time allows them to bring their purpose and faith together in one place with the people they love.

Cozy Living is Good Food

Cozy living means eating good food.

It doesn’t have to be fancy food. But it is good food that nourishes our bodies and brains. It is health-giving food that gives us the physical, mental, and emotional stamina to make the most of the physical and spiritual gifts we have been given.

Because of the commitment to eating good food, the kitchen is often the center of the cozy home. Whether it is preparing meals or simply spending time together around a meal, food tends to be important to people who embrace the American cozy life.

Cozy Living is Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do, Do Without

I said that I think American cozy living is partially an outgrowth of the pioneer spirit and the thriftiness of the Great Depression. We can especially see it with this saying that many cozy people live by:

Use it up, wear it out, make it do, and do without.

It’s easy to forget how much of an impact those events have had on us as Americans, especially those of us with a long family heritage that encompasses those timeframes. One branch of my family was among the early settlers in Michigan. I remember hearing stories about the Great Depression from my grandparents and my husband’s grandparents. Those experiences have shaped families and continue to do so. We don’t even realize how much a part of our thinking it is (until we go somewhere completely different like the American who went to England).

Cozy living is about making the most of what you have. It isn’t about chasing the newest and the best. Back during the economic downturn of 2008, experts identified a tendency called dwelling. At that time it was seen as a phase that would swing back the other way toward surging. But for people who embrace the American cozy life, dwelling is how we live all the time. Our cozy living is not dictated by the stock market or the economic climate. We make the same choices to fill our life with coziness no matter what is going on in the world around us.

So let the Danish folks enjoy their hygge. We don’t need to chase it. We already have something beautiful here in America – our cozy life. 

Cozy Encouragement In My Shop