I Am Way Into Cozy

Lately I have been thinking a lot about cozy. I even love the word. It has a cozy feel, doesn't it? And most words with Z are not very cozy. Like, ZOOM. So not cozy. Or Zesty. Or Zap, Zig, or Zag for that matter. But COZY. Ah, now there is a great word!

I suppose the reason I am thinking about it so much is that for the past two and a half weeks its been at least ten below zero and has gone as low as 27 below. And the way I have been coping is to find all the simple pleasures I can, while staying warm in my house. I never realized I was so into cozy, but now I can see that its a big deal to me. I find ways to pour coziness into my life a few times daily.

My house is so cozy. I mean it. I really cannot remember being in another house that felt as cozy as mine. Its not real fancy, but boy is it cozy. Everyone who visits remarks about it. The house practically pulls you into a giant hug when you walk in the door. What makes it so? Well, its pretty big, so its not a "small" kind of cozy. Like when you were a child and curled up in a bean bag. When you walk in the living room is large, but rather more like two rooms, divided by couches. So it doesn't feel stark and empty. You feel the warmth of the woodstove and its roaring fire. There is a couch sitting in front of it, the kind of couch that you sink into like a bog. Its piled high with soft fleecy blankets, and a few pillows. Its a magic couch. It can cause a nap to happen in about five seconds flat. When you sit on it, you also might get a soft snuggly cat on your lap in a matter of moments. That makes it super cozy!

The other part of the living room has a large sectional couch, super plush and comfy. Its large enough to hold the whole family at once, where we all might snuggle in and listen to Daddy read a nightly chapter from Roald Dahl's latest. Its where I go to hold a daughter in each arm and listen to the silly chatter and wild dreams and schemes. My daughters are warm and cozy, especially with sleepy mumbles and soft Christmas pajamas.

I love my pink roses, a string of tea lights across my windows. When I want just a hint of light, they provide a cozy glow of twinkle, not enough to read by but enough to think or pray by.

I love a cozy cup of tea. I keep a whole basket of all kinds of exotic teas. Each smell and taste has a different way of taking me away, and freeing me from thoughts of stress or worry. I might go for an orangey blackish tea, or a teasing mint, or exotic melon, or vanilla, or Chai, or Alaskan rosehip, or some fancy thing I cannot pronounce that I have stolen from a hotel room.

Music is cozy too. I like various classical composers, or a Celtic wave of instruments lapping softly at my ears. No lyrics. I make up my own.

I love my favorite robe, zipped to the perfect spot near my chin but not too high. I have fuzzy socks but not slippers. I like how you don't have to curl your toes to keep fuzzy socks on, unlike a pair of too-big slippers. Too-big slippers are not cozy.

Its cozy to talk to my husband, when our day is done and we are sleepily discussing anything and nothing. Sitting in our warm living room, maybe we have just come in from feeding our horses and the chill is gone from our cheeks and we are just enjoying this quiet time. Its so cozy. And I am at peace. Of course, snow falling softly outside adds to the feeling of escaping something, and arriving in a safe place.

I am way into cozy.

What are your ways of finding your cozy place?