You’d think that a planed event being cancelled twice might get us down or discouraged but far from it. We originally planned our “Celebration of Winter” for February 15th and had to cancel due to a snowstorm and bitter windchill. We rescheduled for March 15th and had to cancel due to a snowstorm and bitter windchill (albeit not as bad as February).
This could be considered as a bad omen but we tend to look at it from the perspective that the gods of Winter were celebrating themselves (with great showpersonship we might add!) and did not need for us to gather in order to acknowledge them. In fact, recognizing that it was unsafe to gather in this way was probably as much acknowledgement as such gods would require (though I doubt they would require even that).
Our culture tends to think of itself as not intimately connected to the Wild any longer and yet we get a Winter Weather Advisory every time there is a snowflake storm. We build storm cellars and buy backup generators because we intimately understand that the power of Nature is not something we can control. Rather than hoping for control or building walls between ourselves and the Wild, it is important that our culture embrace the Wild and in doing so, recognizing that the Wild will do what the Wild does. Storms will happen, rain will fall and winds will topple trees and houses whether we establish our appreciation for these forces of nature or not.
We’ve always stated that when we look at the land, we must have the greatest understanding and respect for it’s harshest condition. The land of Maine’s harshest condition is and always has been Winter and out of respect for Winter, we cancelled. The celebration of Winter is a celebration for us, something to remind us of how inspiring and awakening the cold can be. Several of those who had intended to join us went outside and celebrated Winter on their own. We applaud the spirit of this and are excited that even though we couldn’t be together, in spirit we celebrated. Perhaps that is what the gods of Winter wanted all along…
The Fellowship of the Wild 
You may well have something there! There is much to be said for acknowledging the power of the Powers That Be as opposed to finding ways to work around — in a sense circumvent — nature. Mind you, I wouldn’t suggest freezing as a way to get in sync with winter, but so much of the common culture is based on separation from The Wild — from the generators you mention to mitigate the effect of a storm, to the summer’s fixation on recreating winters temperatures inside buildings each summers day — that living a life closer to nature would seem to call for hunkering down and acknowledging the storms, and by extension, allowing our bodies to sweat in the summer as we work to provide sustenance for ourselves and our families sufficient to last through the dark and cold.
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and, in addition… a winter poem of mine from days past
No, Winter – Old Man –
you won’t crush me!
Try to bury me with
your white mantle!
Like the squirrel,
I have stores beyond your reach.
Make all creatures hole up (to die?)
I have a shovel! Now
the deer walk on human trails to feed.
Freeze the water!
I have fire,
and you give in abundance
the stuff of drink.
Fade Earth’s colors
to sap my spirit!
I have paint, and threads and Summer,
captured in celluloid and glass.
No, Old Man,
though you try your best –
and may claim others –
you won’t have me!
3/7/93
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