Koselig

December 8, 2018

“There’s no such thing as bad weather,” the Norwegians say, “only bad clothing.”

(I read this in an article shared by my friend Sherilyn Yoder about The Secret to Enjoying Winter.)

Besides having good clothes, the Norwegians, according to the article, focus on the positives of the long dark winter. They have a particular word for the feeling created by candle light and tea and soup and fireplaces and stories and warm blankets. The Norwegians call this feeling of winter warmth koselig. 

Well, it’s really cold here in Wisconsin and I didn’t bring many good clothes. There is a lake frozen white and rivers black with slush and a man kicking caked ice out of the wheel wells of his car. But I am trying to focus on the koselig.

Koselig is breaking out the chess board and the Uno cards on a cold winter evening at my brother’s house with burrito casserole aroma filling the house and twins in every corner! 

Koselig  is finding that the Christmas pajamas I bought in Mississippi for my two nieces actually fit! I was worried, so I brought them this weekend to try them out.

Koselig is sticking cloves into thin slices of citrus fruit and baking them in a slow oven and breathing in the scent all afternoon. 

Koselig is hearing a winter story about snow and wearing fun hats on a day when fresh snow falls out of a frozen sky.

Koselig is meeting my friend Rosie for coffee in the frozen north where it’s about four degrees above zero on her birthday….and watching her son climbing up to find marshmallows. I love people that love marshmallows!

Koselig is the intense but quiet beauty of the stands of birch trees on my drive back home, lit up with frost, and the historical marker that tells me that white men came here to this north country about 360 years ago and spent the winter with the Indians. (Yes, I did stop to read the historical marker. You don’t have to be like me!)

Koselig is heading over to Dad and Jeanie’s, a place of warmth and laughter, and a family gathering tonight with pizza and writing critiques.

Koselig is waiting to hear from Marnell to see when he will come pick me up after the very un-koselig circumstance of being turned away at the gate of the O’Hare airport and needing to go to his friend’s wedding in Manitoba by car. (The new line at our house is now that we are in our second year of marriage we don’t have to spend time together anymore.)

Koselig is the train whistle I hear right now, roaring past the library, reminding me of our wedding day more than a year ago, now that we’re in our second year of marriage, and of how glad I am that the new line at our house is funny because it isn’t true!

I wish you a koselig weekend, whatever temperature you are facing!