Sauna (s-OW-na)

The Finnish blood compels us to the Sauna. To sit and sweat. Even my kids endure it. They're 1/4 Finnish after all. The steam swirls around the small room and tickles my nose. It also relaxes my muscles and clears my head. My little ones have coughs and the moist heat helps their sore throats. "It needs to be hotter," my mom insists. "Mummu, I'm already too hot!" Sam tells her. We don't beat each other with the traditional birch branches, instead, my kids start splashing each other with the water that is suppose to be thrown on the hot rocks. "Just sit still and relax! Enjoy the heat." Mummu is wasting her breath. My kids are 3/4 American after all.

The sauna was born in Finland. The winters in Finland are 6 months long, dark and very cold. Sauna is a ritual. Every home has one and every family takes a sauna together. My mom tells me stories of winter nights spent sitting in the hot, hot sauna and then running out side to roll in the snow then running back to the sauna. Back and forth. In the summer, they would sit in the sauna then jump in the lake or ocean. Is this wild, thrill-seeking, bone-chilling, behavior limited to the Finnish children or rebellious teenagers?

Just last week my mom went to sauna and then went down to the river just behind their house. She was smiling as she told me this. I was shocked. It is 28 degrees at night here. The water is FREEZING. It was dark. She wore a head lamp. A head lamp! She is MY MOTHER! "Mom! Why did you do it?" She laughed and told me it made the sauna feel so much better. She is also 100% Finnish and has generations of lake jumpers and snow divers running in her veins, after all.