Hearth and Heart

Today is the first really chilly day we've had: 40s all day, and freezing last night and I think again tonight. Gentle readers, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for




THIS.

We had only space heaters last winter. I won't go into the long dull reasons why. Let me tell you, some days it was a little rough: those mornings when the boys and I, dressed in multiples of every clothing piece, huddled together in front of the oven, waiting for it not to be so bone-chilling cold. And now, BEHOLD:




We stayed at Clear Creek the first new year we were married, and met a bunch of really cool, crazy people. one couple we met, married I think 25 years and with a large family, had an interesting perspective: the dissolution of family life did not begin with televisions in the bedroom, or computers or smart phones or tablets. Rather, it began with the innovation that made it possible to be comfortable in disparate rooms: to wit; central heating.
Extreme? Perhaps, but i think it's an interesting point. Go back and reread (hopefully, or definitely read) the "Little House" books and their descriptions of winter evenings. They are not together gathered around a screen, but simply gathered together, peaceful in each other's company. Without central heating, the hearth truly does become the center, the heart, of the home. This evening, a foretaste of long dark evenings to come, we spent all around the stove, reading stories. It's been a long time since that happened.




It is impossible, I think, to pinpoint one particular cause of families becoming so stretched apart, so strung out. So many factors converged to make the family bonds so very tenuous. Slowly, though, one step at a time, I hope and pray we can make our home more conducive to being together . . . and at any rate, I know we have joy and pleasure in, and immense gratitude for, being warm.