Creating a Prayerful Sustainable Hygge Home

Episode 2

This morning while we were in the kitchen, Sandee preparing coffee and I stirring my first attempt at a sourdough starter, two palm green tanagers (birds) flew into the kitchen. They perched on the counter about 5feet away from us and started to chirp in a most melodic way. We stopped and turned and appreciated their music for about half a minute before they flew off. I took it that they were messengers telling us to continue in our endeavour.

I started making a sourdough bread starter. However, after 10 days, the mixture is alive but has not expanded very much. I continue to feed it flour and keep stirring. I have had more success with making a large jar of orange marmalade. A friend gifted us a large crocus bag of oranges.

We have used the orange marmalade to trigger an evening tea ritual - a cup of tea and a slice of bread with marmalade. I also used some of the oranges to make a jug of fresh orange juice that I keep in the fridge and drink for refreshment and to accompany dinner.

To make our new sustainable hygge lifestyle prayerful, we have been discussing the weekly and daily Gospels as interjections in our conversations. We both have different individual daily agendas. I have my writing and parish work while Sandee has her Christian Meditation and Social Justice work.

In January we focused on Jesus visiting his home town of Nazareth Luke 4:14-21. It was very relevant with what we each was going through with our ancestral families. Sandee and her siblings dealing with the loss of their parents and us with our ailing 94yr old mother.

Sandee has started leading us in ‘soulful stretches’, a seniors starter to something akin to yoga. It was a wonderful experience especially while playing soft tranquil music in the background. She is also attending to her plants.

A key observation is that life matters and it often takes precident. At present my siblings and I are struggling to keep up with the demands of our ailing 94yr old mother. This has required many meetings and hard decisions on the best way forward. Sandee and her siblings are also dealing with the aftermath of their parents passing in relatively quick succession.

I have realised that a prayerful sustainable hygge lifestyle is as much attitude as it is activities. It is learning to approach every activity in a slower more mindful manner. This requires much patience and calm when dealing with others, especially those on different wavelengths. It also requires me to check myself. I am prone to being aggressive verbally when my blood pressure is high. Christian Meditation helps tremendously.

Evenings have become more sacred for us. It is a time to wind down after a challenging day. We stop and appreciate the silence. We share each of our days, the challenges, successes and failures. We say a short prayer. This is hygge, slowing down, making oneself comfortable and savouring the moment.

A pattern for the day seems to be developing with the two ends, morning and evening being hygge, while the middle, the marmalade in the middle of the sandwich, is all about mindful activity, work.

Work for me is my writing, parish work and attending to the home and garden. I also have to come up with a way of earning funds to sustain us and the home. Ideally it must be a work that fits in with the above and is based at home. At present I am thinking along the lines of communication, but a model continues to elude me.

One morning as we were sitting on the back terrace savoring our morning cup of coffee, after our walk, there was an emotionally dramatic moment. The mummy and daddy bananquit birds started a commotion at the nest just a few feet above our heads. Then to our surprise the baby bird flew out of the nest and landed at our feet.

Sandee immediately got up and said ‘let’s go inside’. As we started to leave she explained that she could not emotionally stand the risk of the baby bird fluttering around trying out its wings.

The month of January has been dominated by time spent with dealing with challenges with our ancestral families. We have had to work hard at getting the balance right, dealing with these issues while not neglecting our marriage and our attempt at this new lifestyle.

This new lifestyle revolves around the home. It is an attempt to reclaim the home as the central sacred place in our lives. The home becomes our monastery. It is in the home that we nurture family life, our spirituality, our work and taking care of the environment. How we live at home creates a mindset and attitude that we take with us when engaging with the world.

Before God made humans He made a home for them, The Garden of Eden. He built a sacred place, the first home. Later, the ensured the Israelites had a home of their own, The Promised Land. And He ensured His son was brought up in a home at Nazareth.

Home has always been the place for building relationships both with each other and with God. Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of the evening. Last evening as I sat with Sandee on the back terrace in the gathering dusk, I thought of the sacredness of that time with each other and with God. We all need a home, however, humble.

We encourage you to adopt a more sacred home lifestyle. As we have discovered, after a month, it is not easy. It requires a change of attitude, a planning of the day, creating prayerful hygge moments and reducing waste. We have to change our mindset from it being a stop over until the activities of tomorrow. The time at home is the real time that nurtures us through prayer and relationships and gives us the capacity to engage the world.

Please tell us about your efforts.