Last week was summer in Fremont. This week we are back to winter. Don’t you love Michigan? No time to get bored with the weather around here is there? I was out on a call last week and with the sun roof open getting sun on my head and enjoying the first natural warmth since about last September and noticed the brilliant yellow Forsythia blooming. Whenever the Forsythia bloom I remember something the old-timers used to say: “Three snows after the Forsythia bloom.”
When the Forsythia bloom it is usually very warm and well into spring so every year I think it cannot possibly snow three times but almost every year it will at least spit snow three more times.
This morning as I write I am looking out on a light cover of snow and I am reminded again not to doubt the wisdom of old-timers. The heater is on and the cat is sitting in the window looking confused. She is probably wondering where the birds went or why she couldn’t have been adopted by a family in southern California. I’m thinking about the wisdom and experience the years bring.
It is so tempting to disregard the advice and accumulated wisdom of older people. Job’s story is told in a book of the Bible named after him. He had been “around the horn” a few times when he wrote: “Wisdom is with aged men, and with length of days, understanding.” (Job 12:12)
By the time I get this figured out I will be an “old people” myself. I hope young people will listen to me when I tell them not to put away their snow-blower yet.
