By Allen Hamrick
“I don’t know about you, but I have had my fill of winter. Bring back the yellow jackets, I can at least fight them and I can be warm doing it.” Something along these lines is what I have heard during this run of rough winter weather. Granted, winter is tough; we have a life to live, and snow and ice put a damper on things. Not only have we had some really cold temperatures, but the snow just keeps on giving. Water lines freeze, your mind wanders and your mouth starts begging for spring. There are those that figure it’s the government changing the weather to please them and others that chalk it up to nature and weather patterns. Winter is tough, of course, but seasons come and go for a number of reasons that this paper couldn’t possibly hold.
Winter is when all natural things but humans go dormant until spring brings them back to life. It is what regulates bugs, natural growth, and gives the human species time to recover from all their labors from spring until the end of fall. That’s the way it was designed, but in the name of progress, it is impossible to rest during winter because we all have jobs to do. Without a work force, this America would be nonexistent; there would be no food, shelter, money or future. However, complaining about winter is common amongst coffee drinkers; cursing winter is a different ball game. I heard a fellow say once, “I wish winter was 70 degrees all the time.” The Eastern Woodland Indians have a story they told their children during winter time to help with that statement.
Long ago the rabbit used to have a long, beautiful tail and long legs. Rabbit could run fast and dance like a bear. Rabbit loved the snow and loved to dance in the snow, but the snow just wasn’t falling. Rabbit went to Owl and asked what had happened to the snow. Owl replied that it was almost spring silly rabbit but if you go and dance and sing a song to winter maybe it will return just for you. So, Rabbit started dancing and sang his song…I love snow, I love snow please come back snow. Rabbit continued dancing and singing and the snow started coming down much to his delight. Rabbit said to himself, “I’ll keep dancing and singing until the snow falls as big as feathers.” Sure enough, the snowflakes fell heavy and looked big as feathers and the snow got deeper and deeper.
Pretty soon Rabbit was getting tired and decided to stop; he opened his eyes and the world around him was very white with all the paths and trees covered under a thick blanket of snow. Rabbit looked out and could see the very top of the tree where he lived among the roots and decided he would sleep in the branch of his tree because he was very tired. Rabbit fell fast asleep and slept for a long time. When he awoke, spring had returned and he was high in the tree and didn’t know how to get down. He saw the grasses and the leaves turning a delicious green, and he was hungry. He leaned over to get a better look but fell down the tree, hitting branches along the way. Each time he hit, he left part of his long tail on the branch. Then there were no more branches and he fell to the ground so hard that it drove his back legs back up and made them shorter. That’s why all the rabbits since then have short tails and have to hop along on shorter legs.
The moral of Rabbit’s story is to be careful what you ask for. This winter we may be a little worse for wear but need to live through it as we always have. Spring rains will come back, summer heat will bake us and soon we will wish again for a 30 degree day.