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Images by Ken Jones |
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The honest time of year |
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| FTLComm - Tisdale - Tuesday, October 11, 2005 | ||||||
 As the snow drips from banks to puddles, it always seems that absolutely anything is possible. Each spring brings to us, who live out on the plains, the idea, that hopes and dreams are just about to be realised. Not only will there be green grass and green leaves, but you could really win the lottery, or find the love of your dreams or that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.. The surprising thing is that no matter how old you become, that optomism of spring seems to linger almost until the leaves begin to turn colour, as autumn sets in. Autumn, what most of us call "fall," is a shocking time of truth and consequences. The bumper crop either made it to the bins, or |
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 was dashed with yet another year's hopes. The first frost and the crisp air, with a bold moon over head, brings us to our senses. We better be thankful for what we have, because another year has come and gone and that's all there is, that's all there is! In the late short days of October the first dusting of snow swirls around us and we turn our attention to surviving the winter and considering rising fuel prices and payments to make. Some might call it, harsh reality, while some just recognise it for the clearing of the cobwebs and the removal of our sunglasses, as we gaze on the way things really are going to affect us. I am getting old and winter is just |
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 another way we lie to ourselves. Those old tires should make it through the winter, the battery is only five years old, it will be fine, the rumors and babble about an election knock some dust off the TV screen, but reality, the harsh awareness of fall, with all its clarity, seems to slip beneath the falling snow of early November. By mid November, we realise the Riders are losers for another season and we begin fabricating the prospects of next season when the team will at last pull together. By early December many of us are considering the wonders of credit cards and that alone seems reason enough to celebrate. For in December, fall and its clear headedness, is totally erased, as we all celebrate for more thab a week |
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 for often what seems like no apparent reason, as the passover is behind us and all we need to do is make it through another winter, blistfully concentrating on the promises and dreams of an early spring. We all chuckle about Saskatchewan being "next year country" but it always has been that way. Probably even before Europeans made their way out here, the Cree and Dene, the Anishanabe and the Lakotas whiled away the winter nights dreaming of the grass land undulating with thousands of fat buffalo. Even before the last Niska in their great "V" formations, faded from the early winter sky, it was time to contemplate the coming year, beyond the snow and frigid winter nights. The truth is, and it is the truth, that no matter how bleak and tormented we see things in the chill of fall, we have no real alternative, but to put our minds into a positive mode, crank up the expectations and dream soft warm dreams of long golden summer days. |
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