I plan to enter this myth in a contest, I’ll let you know how it goes, this is an updated version of last term’s assignment.
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Once upon a time Winter lived as an old woman, and her daughter was Fall. These two old women lived near each other and they argued all the time. When they were younger, when Fall was a young Season, she danced and gusted with the ragged and flouncy trees, wearing bright yellows and warm reds, pulling the leaves off the trees and tossing them around. The most damage she did was out of carelessness, not malice.
When Winter was younger, a long thousand years ago, she was a hard-working mother who quilted snowbanks and dark, long nights for nesting, and where hard-shelled seeds came out of storage for the animals who lived with nature. Most of the bad Winter weather in those days was generally the result of trying too hard, rather than malice.
But as the Seasons got old, oh, maybe a thousand years or so older, these two old women seemed to be angry at each other all the time, which caused no end to troubles for the wildlife who lived in the seasonal rhythms of nature, because when Winter was angry, fields froze early and crops were lost. The year’s young in the forest; the mice and bunnies and foxes and such, had a very hard time of it when Winter was angry. When Fall was feeling mean the wind cracked the tree branches, and took the shingles off the roofs, and it rained at harvest time. Fall had her mean little ways to incite Winter, sometimes just by twisting words, or with a sharp bite of wind, proving yet again that Fall was stronger, more assertive, smarter, more enlightened, and incredibly patient, seeing as how she was better in all ways than Winter. Winter, in turn, was never satisfied with the Season when Fall handed it over; it was never good enough, those broken branches exposing the tree to cold, wet ground to mess up the beauty of the first freeze. It’s true that these two Seasons found many occasions to argue.
One day Winter came to her house to prepare for the Season, and Fall was there waiting. Fall was taking up residence in Winter’s place, and the root crop wouldn’t set, the apples on the trees longed for winter to come and turn their juices to sugar, bears and lizards yearned for the cold hibernation time. This time when Winter came to her own house, Fall blew right over her with a hot gust of challenging words, without even a greeting. She was very rude indeed to Winter, and it started to rain on the harvest.
Fall didn’t know it then, but Winter was already carrying heartbreak that day. Her friends, the Snow Goose family, had been through a hard Fall season because a wet harvest ruined most of their crops. They were already counting every seed in preparation for travel to the winter home, when disaster struck. An angry, freezing storm that quickly turned mud to ice, and brooded and snapped over the land, covered their lake overnight. The Snow Goose family told Winter that they were planning to pack up their survivors and go somewhere more clement.
Winter knew Fall was partly responsible, and she was disappointed in her daughter, that she would rain on the crops so unthinkingly, because she knew that the Snow Goose family lived in nature between Fall and Winter, but Winter had to admit that her own anger at her daughter probably had caused the sudden cold snap. When Winter came home saddened and cold, the first greeting she heard was from her daughter informing her of what all was wrong with Winter. The gust of autumn wind was terrifying in it’s suddenness, and it shook the trees.
Feeling smug to have gotten in the first blow, Fall braced herself for Winter’s snappy comeback, but it didn’t come. Winter couldn’t move, it was finally just too much bad weather and she lost the will to fight.
Fall looked for Winter’s mood, and immediately saw the change in Winter’s eyes, the old mother’s eyes registered a frailty that Fall had never seen there before. For the first time in as many generations as you can count, they looked at each other, really allowed themselves to see the other. The two women stood speechless for a moment, and the air softened and the birds unclenched their feet, just a little wary. The daughter became alarmed at the lack of anger in her old mother’s eyes and quickly embraced her old mother, thinking she might be feverish or have some other illness, because even with the Seasons, change is the only constant. Hard winters give way to gentle winters, or long winters, or wet winters, or busy winters, and without even knowing it, Fall turns gradually into Winter. That they both realized all this in a flash was clear in their eyes.
Immediately upon this realization, while this clear vision of her mother as precious was new, Fall apologized for her rude behavior and vowed out loud never to vex her old mother again.
Now Winter was very surprised at this, and when Fall persisted, Winter argued that Fall could never do such a thing for any length of time, she was incapable of it, they both were. But Fall talked gently to her mother and at last they both agreed that something had to be done. It was something to start agreeing on at least. Fall and Winter went the same peaceful way from then on, searching always to keep peace happening in every moment. They actually came to respect each other truly, and to treat each other with kindness and joy. Long busy Fall days respectfully and peacefully turned cooler, with rains after the harvest like it should be, and Winter respected Fall by creating icy ponds to reflect the leafless trees, and with clear, sunny days for skating, and enough white snow for sledding and hot chocolate.
For several years, oh, more than a hundred, probably, Fall and Winter had to work really hard to not argue, but soon they discovered that they were on an adventure of learning to know each other. Sometimes, for hundreds of years at a time, the daughter refrained from correcting her old mother (more often than not), and the old woman decided that Fall was actually pretty good at maintaining a Season after all, and soon they were really enjoying each others’ company.
The whole land breathed a sigh of relief.
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