at home

rave on John Donne

“A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy’s Day, Being the Shortest Day”

TIS the year's midnight, and it is the day's,
Lucy's, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks;
    The sun is spent, and now his flasks
    Send forth light squibs, no constant rays;
            The world's whole sap is sunk;
The general balm th' hydroptic earth hath drunk,
Whither, as to the bed's-feet, life is shrunk,
Dead and interr'd; yet all these seem to laugh,
Compared with me, who am their epitaph.

Study me then, you who shall lovers be
At the next world, that is, at the next spring;
    For I am every dead thing,
    In whom Love wrought new alchemy.
            For his art did express
A quintessence even from nothingness,
From dull privations, and lean emptiness;
He ruin'd me, and I am re-begot
Of absence, darkness, death—things which are not.

All others, from all things, draw all that's good,
Life, soul, form, spirit, whence they being have;
    I, by Love's limbec, am the grave
    Of all, that's nothing. Oft a flood
            Have we two wept, and so
Drown'd the whole world, us two; oft did we grow,
To be two chaoses, when we did show
Care to aught else; and often absences
Withdrew our souls, and made us carcasses.

But I am by her death—which word wrongs her—
Of the first nothing the elixir grown;
    Were I a man, that I were one
    I needs must know; I should prefer,
            If I were any beast,
Some ends, some means ; yea plants, yea stones detest,
And love; all, all some properties invest.
If I an ordinary nothing were,
As shadow, a light, and body must be here.

But I am none; nor will my sun renew.
You lovers, for whose sake the lesser sun
    At this time to the Goat is run
    To fetch new lust, and give it you,
            Enjoy your summer all,
Since she enjoys her long night's festival.
Let me prepare towards her, and let me call
This hour her vigil, and her eve, since this
Both the year's and the day's deep midnight is.

getting ready

 

This is little John kissing Santa Claus many years ago. The kids are getting very excited and enjoying their small Christmas preparations. My room looks like Santa's workshop, and I need to transform it into a guest bedroom in the next two days. One thing about a hundred year old house is the lack of any storage space. I have no hiding places.

Ella had a beautiful hot chocolate bar set up by nine this morning for Solstice. We enjoyed dinner and a bonfire with a few friends, a Leaping Water's Farm fresh ham, lentils with walnuts, currants, and caramelized onions, fresh bread, cheeses, kale salad, and poached pears with salted caramel gelato.

December 19

this little light of mine

We went to the Advent Garden at the Unitarian Church this weekend. After years of seeing pictures of similar events at Waldorf Schools it was wonderful to find this at our own church. Ruby's favorite part was "holding her fire".