. . . winter . . .

Winter is beginning to howl through the streets here in the wind scoured metropolis of Winnipeg, Manitoba. I walked to work today under a slate gray sky and skeletal branches reaching up toward the heavy, snow-laden (God forbid!) clouds. The remains of summer's happy foliage lie sodden and decomposing in the gutters - scattered with rejected cigarette butts and candy bar wrappers. The grass is crisping, losing its green health and taking on the sickly hue of light-starved vegetation, the hapless victim of nighttime's frost.

I work at a unique café in Winnipeg's West End. Founded by the Christian activist Harry Lehotsky, the Ellice Café is a non-profit community development initiative run by New Life Ministries. Most of us staff live downtown Winnipeg or in the West End, and though we come from staggeringly diverse backgrounds, we have a lot in common.

Winter though, is an issue that divides us into two camps. I don't hate winter; really, I don't. I just don't see the point of it. Why? Why, when one could be bathing in the sun, hiking through the Whiteshell, slapping mosquitoes, slathering on sunscreen while canoeing some winding river, rollerblading or biking down a leafy, oak-canopied street . . . why snow?

Scarcely a day passes without Tony, burger boy extraordinaire (I don't get that nickname - why burger boy?) and me debating the pros and cons of the snow-blanketed season that is winter. He taunts me with foreboding forecasts, and eagerly glances out the tall windows at the low hanging, heavy clouds. Winter is marching relentlessly down from the arctic wastes - and I wait for it despondently, sinking further under my feather tick and sipping my piping hot chicken soup and crackers - Wheat Thins of course!

June, I'm waiting!