sacred spaces in extraordinary places

The Finns are very private about their spirituality and their religious beliefs. this is a very personal matter. They are, however, passionate about saunas and will talk to you earnestly about the sacredness for Finns of time spent in the sauna. Time spent in the sauna is time to be quiet and reverent and to sit with yourself and reflect. --a time to get naked physically and spiritually perhaps. Conversations, if any,in the sauna are serious and respectful. When the weather goes above 70 degrees Farenheit Finns are complaining about how hot it is. If the temperature in the sauna is below 170 degrees Farenheit then it is not nearly hot enough. Most people have a sauna in their home and a huge proportion of the population also have summer cottages on the lake with a separate sauna.

I had the privilege of being invited to a summer cottage on a lovely little lake. i had a sauna with my aunt and then followed her to go swimming in the lake right afterwards--still naked mind you! but it was all very modest. We tiptoed down to the lake with our towels wrapped around us and slipped in before anyone could notice--not that there was anyone else around. Wow!! did that feel so delicious!!

My aunt went back to the sauna before me and there I was all alone swimming in an entire lake by myself with the blue sky above and a ring of green forest around me. "Finns like to be alone" declared the beautiful woman on the plane next to me on my way home. I guess they have learned that because they so often have the opportunity to be alone. I have since embraced this attitude as part of my Finnish heritage and I have found it most empowering. Yes... I have discovered I DO like to be alone even more than before and I think part of it is that I allow myself even more than before to enjoy it. We often feel that we should not be alone and I rarely have the chance to be recently as I have become engaged in a myriad of diverse activities. I find I really miss the opportunity for solitude and need to engineer it back into my life.

But back to saunas. Since I came back from Finland I have been swimming weekly and there is a sauna and steam room at the pool. How disappointed I was at first with how the sauna was not hot enough and how you are not allowed to pour water on the rocks in the "dry sauna" which is at least made of wood and so feels a little like the saunas in Finland. If you want "wet heat" you are to go into the ceramic tiled environment of the steam room. Well I have resigned myself to making do with what is available. Yesterday in the steam room I got to chatting with a Korean woman who was describing with such longing the bathhouse culture in Korea-- jjimjilbang --a large complex with various different kinds of gender segregated steam rooms and saunas where families go to relax. I fully empathized with her dissatisfaction at the barrenness of steam room/sauna culture in the US.