Good News! I saw a Robin

Good News! I saw a Robin

I have some good news to share with you. I saw a robin a couple weeks ago. It was mid-February. “So what?” you say. Well that means spring is really close. I know, we’ve already had the groundhog come out of his den and he did see his shadow which supposedly means there will be six more weeks of winter. That’s nothing but legendary myth.

A robin sighting is much more significant. In the first place we haven’t had a winter yet. This is the hottest February in recorded history with temps frequently in the 50s and 60s. So we have to wonder, is winter just coming late this year? You know, we still have the basketball tourney to get through.

Second and more importantly, there is absolutely nothing scientific about a furry, bushy-tailed rat sticking its head out of a hole in the ground on a designated day and time with people looking for its shadow. Whether it’s sunny or cloudy at that particular moment is what determines if the rodent will produce a shadow. And that has nothing to do with how our weather will progress in the near future.

But seeing a robin, that’s totally different. The robin is a migratory bird. Even though some robins stay up north year round, most fly south for the winter. And their return is considered a harbinger of spring. This, of course, is based on scientific studies. So seeing a beautiful orange-breasted robin in the middle of February means spring is on the way and that is, indeed, good news.

And there’s another good, really exciting benefit from robins. If you stamp 100 of them you can make a wish and it will come true. It is not dangerous to the birds. Stamping is when you see a robin you lick one of your thumbs, tap the back of the opposite hand with that thumb then pat (stamp) that spot. When you’ve seen 100 robins and stamped 100 times you can make your wish and it will come true.

If you stamp any bird other than a robin, it doesn’t count and your wish won’t come true. But get a hundred robins and you get your wish. I can’t speak from personal experience on this because I never made it to a hundred. With my short attention span I was easily distracted on where I was in the count.

However, I absolutely, positively know that robin stamping and wish making is real and it works. How do I know? Because when I was a little child, my mother told me so. Argue with that.

Keep Smiling

Linda Messmer can be reached at 812-448-8725.