Being raised in the Smoky Mountains, my grandmother believed in signs. No, not the street kind. I’m talking signs in nature. Several times a year during my childhood, she gave me and my cousins specific instructions on how to scout her yard and find a particular sign she needed to know. Like the thickness of woolly bear caterpillars’ coats as an indicator of upcoming winter weather, spiderweb formations as rain or frost predictors, and cricket chirp frequencies to determine if warmer weather was on the way. Mountain folks relied on these signs and many more to help them farm and provide for their families. No high-tech weather forecasts or any amount of scientific research ever convinced her the seeds and plants sown during daylight hours grew just as well compared to those planted under the light of a full moon—as directed by her mother, who grew up in the late 1800s.
Were my grandmother’s ways fact or fiction? Maybe a little of both based on what we know today. But a great source of many truths for the new year is the book of Proverbs, and one of my favorites is Proverbs 19:21. "Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”
On this first Southern-Fried Friday of 2020, what’s one of your plans for the new year? I plan to eat less chocolate . . . on second thought, maybe not.