During this busy holiday season, our inboxes and our hearts can be overfull as we remember all that the year held while we gather with family, friends, and co-workers for some holiday cheer. At Imago Dei Fund, our hearts certainly are full as we look back on the global struggles of 2022 and the web of kindness and change that we are privileged to be a part of.

We spent a good portion of this year working on a strategic plan that will shape our work and priorities for the next three years. As part of this, we engaged in many stakeholder conversations with partners and friends. What a gift it has been to be on the receiving end of so many people’s time and wisdom! We are working on the final touches of this plan and look forward to sharing more in the new year.

In this busy and sacred season, our holiday greeting this year is short and sweet: we wish you something the Danish call hygge, which is more easily felt than explained. It is a feeling of coziness and wellbeing, a contentedness surrounded by simple things and/or the people you love. In our fast-paced, digitally over-connected world, hygge invites us to switch off our devices and return to the simple enjoyment of the moment at hand.

HYGGE (PRONOUNCED HUE-GAH) IS A DANISH WORD THAT IS A FEELING OR MOOD THAT COMES FROM TAKING GENUINE PLEASURE IN MAKING ORDINARY, EVERYDAY MOMENTS MORE MEANINGFUL, BEAUTIFUL OR SPECIAL – HYGGEHOUSE.COM)

However busy you may be, however full your inbox or social calendar, whatever your longing for alleviating human suffering and changing unjust social structures, whatever heaviness may be burdening your heart, or whatever hopes you carry for the year ahead… this holiday season we wish you the simple pleasure of feeling cozy and peaceful in the refuge of the present moment.

We are grateful to be in the mix with so many incredible change-makers, like you, who make the world more kind, beautiful & safe.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, & Happy New Year,
Ross and Emily

PS: In the spirit of rest, rejuvenation and hygge, the IDF offices will be closed Dec 26 – Jan 2. If you need anything before the end of the year, please reach out to your program partner before then. Otherwise, we’ll be back in touch in the new year.