A suitcase full of sun

To bring back the light.

“do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure

that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out…”

— Mary Oliver

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Dear friends,

A couple of weeks before Jose and I flew back to Uruguay for the holidays, I got my hair cut in Antwerp, at a lovely salon owned by a man named Wim.

Naturally, as one is wont to do while at the hairdresser’s, I got to chatting with Wim about my upcoming trip.

There was lots to be excited about — that this was our first trip back to Uruguay since we moved to Belgium; that my parents would be joining us there, too; and that we’d be celebrating Eva’s baptism all together, at the very same church where Elena was baptized two years ago.

But weirdly, what I got most emotional about — what actually had me tearing up as I talked with Wim — was that most quotidian of topics:

The weather.

A tale of two December forecasts.