Ode to sauna

Nothing, absolutely nothing makes me feel more at home than going to sauna at my childhood home in Hollola, Finland.

My parents built the sauna in the early 1980s. It's a small wooden room, with three levels of wooden benches. The highest bench is about a meter from the ceiling, so you will catch the heat nicely. Window to the garden and a dim light at knee high lights up the space enough. The sauna stove, with a pile of stones on it, stands in one corner. When we were kids we would play with the resin dribbling from the fresh wooden walls: when the sauna was hot and the resin was soft, you could mould the shape of the little droplets, and when the sauna was cooled off, the resin would solidify into beautiful golden droplets.

Last night I was there again, for the first time since July 2011. Sauna was heated to 80c (175F), and when I poured the first ladle of water on the hot stones, a soothing steam surrounded me. I could feel my pores opening, skin softening, and the stiffness in my neck, from sleeping in the plane, starting to melt away. It was hot, but not unbearable hot. Slowly I leaned back against the wall, and I could feel the heat of the wall on my skin. I could feel my heart beating faster, and sweat droplets forming on my skin. I was breathing in and out slowly; inhaling peace of mind and exhaling any stress left in my body.

Even though we have a sauna in our building in Canada (it was the main reason for moving into that building), and I use it several times a week, it can't compete with the sauna in Hollola. Partly because sitting in the sauna is only one half of the art - the other half is sitting outside of the sauna. In Canada I sit in a boring, white change room, and in Hollola I sit outside in a backyard, summer or winter. In the summer the garden is lush green filled with flowers, and in the winter it's calm and quiet.

It had snowed yesterday before I arrived to Finland, and with -5c and 10 cm fresh snow on the ground the backyard looked like a winter wonderland. I walked barefoot in the snow and watched the sauna steam coming out of my skin, when the body was adjusting to the 85 degrees temperature change. I lit up a candle in a lantern, and listened to the silence around. It is good to be at home again.