Slow Havamal: 103

In verse 103, we’re advised that if we want to be wise, we should be happy at home and cheerful with our guests; cultivate wisdom, memory, and eloquence; and speak kindly, often. If we can’t say much it will reveal us as unwise.

Much of Havamal deals with how to treat guests, and after a side trek, we return to that advice in this verse. It’s important, first, to be happy at home. If we’re restless and feel like our daily lives are a prison, desiring to leave it all for something better, or if it isn’t the road that calls us but a more lavish living space, a change of dwelling, it sets us up to be poor hosts. How much easier is it to be cheerful when guests arrive if we love our home, our time there, and want to share it? ( Read more... )