January
Let’s go and fika!
He is British and she is Swedish and their two offspring, a beautiful mix of them both. We sat in their small breakfast nook for about 2 hours – we were invited for a fika!
(Fika, the Swedish ritual of slowing down and finding time to socialise with friends and colleagues over a cup of coffee (or tea) and something small to eat. In Sweden, daily Fika is strongly encouraged, even in business as it refreshes the brain and strengthens relationships and even improves productivity.)
The year kicked off with a stack of paperwork. We made hard stops for fika: with colleagues in their home in Wallonia – they (including their cute girls and their big black dog) are still kind of camping as the house is being renovated. On the menu: their personal story, their passions, homemade pumpkin soup, freshly baked bread and pumpkin pie for dessert. With a neighbour down the street (a stroke forced this creative lady to learn to be right-handed), I splash and paint every Friday afternoon. We laugh, we share, we work in silence and have coffee.
Then there was counselling training for Wim, two days of different types of training and different groups. Meals together served as fika.
Wim’s week of teaching at the Gebedtshaus (house of prayer) in Augsburg, Germany was the best, ever, he said. An enthusiastic group of people responded to Love. One student said: ‘If He speaks to earth and it grows plants and animals, and to oceans, and fish and life are made, then what happens if God keeps talking to us?’ One whole week of fika!
We lingered in Autoworld in Brussels (museum of vintage cars) with a special exhibition called, ‘So British’.
We celebrated Wim and Laura’s (Stiaan’s girlfriend) birthdays with a meal and fun pictures.
A friend’s generous gift had Wim and I fika at a spa.
Brexit (the UK left the European Union) happened on January 31st. We still hope for a tea and cream scone fika on the other side of the channel! They will always be welcome on this side of the channel for coffee and cream waffles.
In this new season, make sure you are never too busy for fika!
