It is winter. Really winter!

Man is it cold this week?! Where I come from we have 21 different words for “cold”. Stupid cold, dumb cold, mean cold, awful cold, real cold, etc, etc. But in the Frozen North you come to expect winter to be cold. Up there you have the clothes and coats and hats and gloves required to handle it. In fact, when I lived up there I thought long underwear ought to be tax deductable as a real necessity for survival!

But down here in balmy Kentucky really cold weather just doesn’t seem right. I mean, 5 degrees Fahrenheit is just wrong, don’t you think?!

Yet my friend Sam Strader told me when I came here years ago that Kentucky has all four seasons, including winter. A real winter. A lot shorter than what I was used to, but nevertheless, complete with snow and freezing rain and cold. Real cold. So thanks to his advice I brought my long underwear with me when I moved here. And my winter gloves, my coat and all my warm winter woolies. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

A lot of what it takes to cope with all that life brings our way is simply to be prepared. Assuming or denying that it’s never going to get cold doesn’t help. Nor does the whining, even though I am very good at it myself. And to be prepared you have to be willing to take advice.

So in life, I think what really helps is listening to the voice of experience: the people who know what things life tends to bring along that we might not be prepared for. It’s a good lesson for all of us to look up the road a bit and identify the folks who can speak into our lives with seasoned wisdom. Even about the season of winter.

Now if only someone would bring me a cup of hot chocolate…

…just thinkling