Do you want to know how I'm sure that winter is finally here? My dog starts growing extra fur between her toes, which has already happened. We complain a lot about winter here in Canada, but there are better ways to think about those long months of hibernation and hidden renewal.

These are the times when we retreat into ourselves, when we get in touch with what we really want and where our lives are going. Or, sometimes, we spend the time just letting our minds go still, something we all need in a world where information and ideas speed through the ether and create a fog of white noise. We grow inward as opposed to outward, a good thing.

In this issue of Wet Ink, our contributors took to the theme of the cold with exuberant enthusiasm. Canada is sometimes a very regionalized country, with provinces and cities that are far apart with different landscapes, cultures and languages. But let me tell you something: no matter where I go, every Canadian I have ever met is more than happy to talk about the weather, specifically the weather in winter. Perhaps our contributors, some at opposite coasts, others scattered throughout the middle, feel that commonality too. Keep your eye out for the photographs of Chelsea Humphries, Dylan Sealy's poem of ennui and snow and every other contribution contained within this issue. Because each of them have to do with what I think winter is all about: preparing for reinvention, personal reflection and, yes, the cold.

Jen Sookfong Lee, Editor