“Ummm.. I think I want to take another round.”

My 10 year old had a friend over.  My son is no stranger to the sauna, but it was his friend’s first authentic Finnish sauna experience.  I thought i’d sit quietly on the bench and see how he took to it.  After a good amount of time on the upper sauna bench, they escaped the hot room to prance around under the outdoor backyard shower.

After a bit of standing around steaming in the crisp air of an early fall night, my son asks.. “so, what do you want to do now?”  There was a whole list of things they could have chosen: TV, computer games, etc. etc. but a smile came to my face when I heard:   “Ummm.. I think I want to take another round.”

Taking a sauna with kids is a great way to reconnect: unplug from the screen, sit together and share an experience of simplistic therapy.  A virtual escape to a vintage cabin without electricty and distractions: share stories, or just sit quietly.  It’s the simple moments of parenting that count.  Family psychologists talk about the importance of eating a meal as a family, as a time when parents and their children can reconnect, and i’ll offer that a sauna presents the same opportunity.  If you’ve ever heard your child, or your child’s friend say , “Ummm.. I think I want to take another round” you’ll know what I mean.

Our cabin sits on an island in Northern MN.  There’s a little foot path connecting a bunch of cabins along the Eastern shore.  We have our own sauna of course, but my 10 year old and I often trek down the path to join a few others in “the Birmingham Sauna.”

Why do we go there?  The unemployment rate may have jumped, housing sales may have dropped, Michael Jackson may have died, but at that moment, sitting pensively in a sauna on an island on a lake 240 miles from Minneapolis, all that interests us is:

• Water pump from the lake: “how did you set yours up?”
• Duluth: “can you pick me up a box of 2 1/2″ deck screws?”
• Fishing: “Jack caught a twenty four incher off Comet last week.”

May sound a tad trite, but where do you go find your community?

Not sure where it came from, but hanging on our cabin wall is a little sign that reads:

cabin (ka ben) n. 1. a place where Minnesotans go every weekend to spend two days waiting for the fish to bite, the bugs to go away, and the sun to come out.  written by Lori Olson c. 1985

Now, i’m not about to start picking away at her glass half empty typical Minnesotan style, Garrison Keillor would be proud.  What I will take to task, however, is that one need not sit looking out the window wishing for the sun to come out.  Weather happens whether we wish, will, or whine about it.  With a sauna, a rainy day is a WONDERFUL day.

Every cabin/cottage should have a sauna, an insurance policy against cabin fever and Murphy’s Law.  Chances are a family reunion will fall on a weekend when a misty morning builds into a downpour by dinner.  We’ve turned a long rainy day into a wild fun party, speakers turned out the windows, floaty toys bobbing around the dock, and even an awesome game of Bocce Ball, all in the rain, thanks to the sauna, humming along, providing warmth and joy and a new outlook on a rainy day.

Does your cabin/cottage have a sauna?  If not, what is your weather insurance policy?

We have the drinking water issue covered in this post here, but what do you like to eat after a long sauna party?  I have experienced folks who dive enthusiastically into a candy bar (very American) and Finn’s traditionally break bread and slice up salty makkara sausage, but for me, I’ve refined my after sauna food to:

1. Pretzels – little sodium replenishment and no oily fats.
2. Cheese – dairy protein jives much better at night than meat protein.
3. Fruit – natural vitamins and fiber via Granny Smith apples or any fresh fruit.

These three foods work well together, without any red dye #5 or poly-splenda-msg-benzoate.

I sleep great after this light snack… Any other suggestions?

I will leave my comments to a minimum.

This is beyond funny, and it’s all true.

Someone asked me to summarize what the big deal is with Saunas, and I simply replied:

“No guru, no method, no teacher.  Just you and I in nature.”

I’ve heard folks say that their sauna is their church.  Sauna is a spiritual experience in Finland. Van Morrison surely wasn’t speaking directly about the sauna experience when he wrote this masterpiece, In The Garden, yet with any masterpiece, lyrics can be applied in multiple context:

I wish I had a live link for you to experience the richness of this song, especially between rounds:

but a nice outdoor sauna is surely a Sweet Thing:

The fields are always wet with rain
After a summer shower
When I saw you standin’
Standin’ in the garden
In the garden

No Guru, no method, no teacher
Just you and I and nature and the father In the garden