A little over three years ago we moved to Quail Run.  We were total novices in many things, one of them being the logistics of heating our home.  At the time we moved in we had two options for heating that ended up not being options at all, we had a propane furnace and an open fireplace. The propane in our tank was completely empty upon or arrival on that cold January day, the temperatures reached the high teens that day.  Our other option was an old fireplace insert, that had had coal burned in it, which in turn cracked all the fire bricks making the fireplace unsafe to use.  We were able to borrow a few space heaters to tide us over until we could get a delivery of propane, but until then the house was cold, bitterly cold.  After that weekend, when we were able to get the furnace fired up and the house nice and warm we realized how expensive propane could be and that because of the manner in which our house was built that we would need a lot of propane every winter and that this was going to break us financially.  Like I said we were such novices.  We decided that we really needed a second source of heat, to supplement our propane  and to be more self sufficient.  We took that old insert out and installed a wood stove.  This is our second winter with a wood stove and it has become our primary source of heat, propane and electric space heaters supplement when needed. I have learned some interesting things using a wood stove, mostly in the management of wood heat, how to heat the house using the least wood I can and how to keep the house warm at night, very practical things. I have also learned other things.  I know the temperatures outside by how the house feels in the morning.  I can tell if the sun has gone behind clouds in a dark room.  I know if the temperatures outside have suddenly dropped or gotten warmer, even if it is just by five degrees.  It has made me more aware and sensitive to the changes, the flows, the rhythms around me.  I’m not living in a house that is heated to a consistent seventy degrees day and night, I live in a home that is in flux, that requires my attention, that lives and breaths with the seasons and it takes me along for the journey.  I love being closer to the cycles of life and of the seasons, even if it makes me a bit uncomfortable at times, it also fills me, creating a connection to the divine I haven’t had the chance to experience before.