Friday

6 January 2017

— The Day of the Epiphany

Good Morning All,

Today will be the last day of moving. Also the last day that our home built in 1777 will have in it the warmth of  a fire in its wood stove. I am doing my best not to be too sentimental, but we were happy at Hultoften 27. We knew the trees and the birds and sunrises and sunsets outside our windows for thirty years and three months. We knew which door hinges squeaked and which didn’t. We knew the slant of the sunlight in at the living room windows. We shall miss it.

On the other hand, we have brought virtually everything in it with us, and our new house is so cosy! It has this modern thing called central hitting; I shall not miss going out to the woodshed at 2:00 in the morning in the sleet to get an armful of split oak.

We hand over the key this afternoon.

For you pagans in the group, this is the day the three wise men saw Jesus an experienced the sudden revelation that he was the true king. “Sudden revelation” is pretty much the definition of epiphany. Such as, for example, the farmer in William Carlos Williams’s poem suddenly realizing how important is the red wheelbarrow he has been taking for granted for so long.

And just by the way, one of today’s birthday people, Early Wynn, a baseball pitcher, is in my top ten for the best eponymous names of all time.

Go well and stay well,

Bhekaron