Winter Light

“Our earth’s a sorry spot, but
for this special interim,
so restful yet so festive,
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, Fog.” (W. H. Auden) At the end of the winter 2020, because of the Covid-19 pandemia, we found ourselves involuntary secluded at my father’s country house, in Northern Italy. This was our home for a time that remains ineffably long, and impossible to define. Our routine was irremediably spent between the house’ windows and the cold and uninhabited rooms of the house. I spent hours diving into my childhood memories, revivified by old objects lost and found again in the family house. We read a lot, and occasionally I went for a walk, trying to capture the ephemeral nature of winter light in my native Lombardy. It was a moment of grace, of unexpected rest, of slowness and reconnection. For the first time in my life, I felt home again.