Surviving the Dark Side—A Letter from the Publisher

The crisp air and still-bright skies invite warm drinks, cozy fires, roomy sweaters, and gumboots.

Then November's brittle winds arrive with their ghost-like chill. Patches of drizzle swell into downpours—a wet quilt unfolding. Days of rain stifle extended chats with friends we encounter on our rounds. Purged of garden grime and summer glow, we run, hair-a-frizz, complexions rendered pale, hoods up, heads down, hands in pockets, dodging puddles. Easy to pretend not to see familiar people. Easy to escape to our own abodes. Easy for some—the hibernators—to turn inward and all but disappear until March.

For those with bear-like souls, these inhospitable days are perfect for tucking in, lighting a fire of fir and arbutus logs seasoned over the summer, baking a pie with fallen apples from a neighbour’s yard, and simmering a hearty soup of carrots, potatoes, and leeks. An introvert’s way.

Stockpiled food, firewood, blankets, and books may prove insufficient fuel for dispelling the gloom of dark days and long nights, or the unrelenting drizzle of island winters. Pitch-black evenings render us invisible—insubstantial denizens of these rocks. No street lights. Clouds conceal the moon.

For some, a melancholy descends—a retreat into the sleep of anaesthesia. A significant fraction of life surrendered to the winter blues. Surely the light will return one day. Only 140 sleeps and everything will be fine again. For others, with eyes fixed on turbulent grey skies, it’s nightly dreams of flying to sunnier locales. An annual migration.

We have felt connected and nourished by a growing number of readers, and by writers and other folk willing to share their lives, stories, and expertise. They’ve offered glimpses of how FOLKLIFE has resonated with them and those they gifted it to, how excited their friends were to read it, and what they, themselves, found particularly engaging. Such enthusiasm for our pages— enjoyed in lockdown, in quarantine, in socially-distanced spaces, behind masks and teetering piles of toilet paper rolls—has turned the dream of FOLKLIFE into a reality.

Because of you, we have survived and are well on our way. So, welcome to this second edition: our version of a survival guide for the dark side

Enjoy,

Alina Cerminara
Founder & Publisher

📖 This article first appeared in The Dark Side Survival Volume of FOLKLIFE Magazine