Isabelle's Upstairs Coffee Shop

In July of 2017 after a year and more of fits and starts, I finally self published, through Amazon, a piece of fiction. I call it a piece of fiction but I also recognize that it is a thinly veiled memoir and true story. I had no worries, which I find a bit perplexing now.    Want to know more?

The Aug 20 issue of The New Yorker featured as its fiction story A Refugee Crisis by Callan Wink. It is a story written in the first person by a supposed fictional writer. But, at least for this reader, it seemed autobiographical of Wink. Be that as it may, the fictional writer makes a statement about writing fiction that, as a first time self published author, really resonated with me.

He said, "Increasingly, it seems to me that fiction is the most shameless genre. It makes no attempt to avert its lying face. In fact, it does the opposite - putting its dishonesty on display and tying to make a virtue out of it. Every morning at the keyboard, I lie, cheat, and steal, and then, after I close the computer, I go about my day disingenuously presenting myself to the friends and lovers whose lives I've plundered for my own ends."

When I wrote and published 2017, "Isabelle's Upstairs Coffee Shop" a friend advised me to make it non-fiction. I didn't want to. Did I want to lie? Did I want to hide? Did I think no one would read it if it wasn't fiction? I really don't know, but I do know that in spite of having just read The Confidence Code by Katty Kay & Claire Shipman, a book that should have empowered me to just shake it off, look out the windshield instead of the rear view mirror, and refuse to ruminate, I did a fair amount of second guessing and experiencing writers remorse as soon as I pushed "publish" on the publishing platform I was using. Two years later, I still do. I still waffle between feeling good for checking "write a book someday" from my list of life's goals and regret for having done so.

I think a lot about ethics. I've never thought much about it from the writers perspective. Until now.

Getting My Hygge On

                           

It’s hygge time! We have had our first snow, Thanksgiving is this week, cold is forecasted, and I am ready to hunker down and get cozy. Cozy is the closest word we have in English for the Danish concept of hygge, as I understand it. Interesting that we take a Danish noun and its best translation is an English adjective. To further bastardize the translation I will convert it to a verb. (Isn't that just the American way?)

I’ve hygged my whole life. I just didn’t know it was called that. It has felt so validating to have it … well validated. So what am I talking about?

I’ve always liked close cozy places. In college I lived in a converted linen closet on the 7th floor of Ford Hall at KSU. I loved it. I remember finding room for a Christmas tree and nesting in under my lofted bed to procrastinate studying. I remember fixing my supper in my tiny room on Sunday nights in my popcorn popper where I had figured out how to even make spaghetti and marinara sauce. Having been gifted a small electric water pot for my high school graduation, every day I would make tea or dissolve a cube of beef bullion in hot water for a warm flavorful beverage.

When I decided I better study, I would get all nested down with some pillows and my books and then think Oh, I should make a cup of tea. Tea in hand, I would be ready to open the book and then think I should light some incense! Up to light some incense. Back to the study pillows. Need a blanket, I would think. Eventually nestled in under the blanket, warm tea in my belly, senses calmed with calming aromas I would fall asleep.

This week I am heading north to colder weather to spend the holiday with family. We will enjoy some cooking and some coffee and a lot of chaos. When I get home I will still hygge but it will be more solitayr, like by drinking espresso, burning a frazier fir scented candle, wearing my hand knitted socks while I knit, write, or read and listening to my quiet pandora holiday station. My hygge will include gazing out a window at a sunset and walking on my own nature trail where I might see a deer, fox, or owl. I will be happy as a clam doing this day after day.

Hygge should be practiced broadly in my opinion. It is a practice in self-care and makes space for contemplation and nurturing friendships. We all can use a dose of that. Thank you, Danes.