Winter 2019 Letter from the Editors

Jessica Weible, Executive Editor of The Watershed Journal

Winter is a good time for reflection. At Christmastime children are encouraged to evaluate their abilities to conform to adult expectations throughout the previous year, writing recommendations for Santa in regards to their overall status as “naughty” or “nice”. Adults indulge in the excess of holiday traditions, feasting and revelry, only to spend the first day of the New Year making earnest pledges to not do all the things they did just days earlier with great enthusiasm. 

Maybe it’s the cold, dreary weather that make us so self-aware, no longer able to lose ourselves in the distractions of summer swimming pools, spring flower-picking or the fall harvest. Maybe it’s the sense of ending that we have when we look around to see barren trees and the forest animals scrambling to gather enough food to survive. But winter has a way of making us look at ourselves, remember our past. 

For some of us, nostalgia, with all rose-colored truths and untruths, sets in so that all we can remember is the beauty of simpler times and all we can feel is the discontent with current times. Others will zero in on one delicious memory, savoring the sights, sounds and feeling of a day, an hour, a moment that is imprinted in our minds in vivid color. Sometimes we feel through these memories in search of something–something as unknowable as all the “what-ifs” in our lives. 

Winter, with all its opportunity for introspection, often inspires great literary work. For this edition of The Watershed Journal, we encouraged our submitters to send in work, both writing and photography, that references the season. What we found was that the writers, photographers and storytellers of Northwestern Pennsylvania are already inclined towards a connection to the natural world with all of its tumultuous variations. As you read on, you will find a collection of work that represents the stories perfect for long winter evenings.

As always, thank you for supporting regional storytelling.