winter reassurance

"It is a comfort in winter to see... signs of life on the long nights of early dark, we feel drawn towards them. When the leaves shut us off from one another again, and the lights are not lit until nine or ten o'clock, there is warmth outdoors, and light in the sky itself, and then people go for evening walks and meet in the lanes, stand to talk at gates, look over into one another's gardens. But in winter, when we all scurry back into our individual burrows, and no one lingers, we need to be able to see each other's houses and lights, for reassurance."

                                                                         -   Susan Hill,  The Magic Apple Tree