1-3 inches. No. A light dusting. No. Up to five inches. No. Maybe two inches. Wait….it’s looking like 8-12 inches. Or….a blizzard, since we just got that warning across our phones!

Who knows? When it comes to predicting snow, there’s really no way to know.

Until it happens.

The last two days have been crazy with weather alerts going off every couple of hours. Predictions changing with every alert. Because no one really knows whether we’re getting snow or not, or if we do, how much will be in store for us. How long the schools will be closed, and we know they will be; even the mere threat of snow closes them around here, or at least closes them early.

As my husband said the other night, “If there were such a thing as reincarnation, I’d come back as a weatherman so I could get paid for being wrong.” Because no matter how well we think we can tell what’s going to happen, we really don’t know…until it happens.

Weather, like our everyday lives, is unpredictable. We have no idea what’s really going to happen until it does. We can plan, and make arrangements for the things that may occur, but in the end we have no idea what’s going to happen until it does.

We could have a light dusting of snow, a few inches, or several inches (like half a foot!) that would drastically impact everything in our area. Or we could get nothing at all.

That’s how life is. We think we know what’s going to happen. So we ignore warning signs. Sometimes it works out, and the warnings were a fluke. Sometimes they’re right on, and if we’d ignored the warnings, we’d be in a bad situation. Or sometimes we do ignore them, with unpleasant consequences.

But we need to be prepared for circumstances that we can’t control. Certainly weather is one of them, but we also need to be prepared for unforeseen circumstances in our lives that can dramatically change our entire future.

That’s not being negative. It’s being wise.

We prepare for an upcoming snowstorm, or hurricane, by making sure we have the groceries we need, batteries in case the power goes, filling our vehicles with gas, being sure our heating systems are working properly, and in some cases making sure generators are fueled and ready. And if it’s snow that’s predicted, we storm the stores for snow shovels and ice melt, and get mad at the store personnel because there’s none left. Well, it’s not their fault, is it, that we waited til the last minute?

So why don’t we prepare for other things in our life that could impact us, and for a much longer period of time than a few days of snow? Why do we sometimes wait til the last minute to try to make preparations and then get upset with others because of our own procrastination?

I have no answers, but it’s something to think about.