Gordon and I have been going out for a walk every couple of
days. We are fortunate to live in Angus as you are never too far from
countryside or seaside. We have enjoyed exploring local nature walks and
looking at the trees coming into bud and the wildflowers. In particular, the
bright yellow of the gorse and broom bushes are quite spectacular.
Seeing them always remind me of Betsy Whyte’s book, ‘Yellow on the Broom’. Betsy was born into a traveller family in 1919 and brought up in the age-old tradition of the ‘mist people’–constantly moving around the country and settling down in one place only during the winter. As a sign that it was time to start traveling again they would wait for the yellow to appear on the broom.
Adam MacNaughtan, the Glasgow songwriter, read the book and then composed a song about it.
I'm weary for the springtime when we tak the road aince mair Tae the plantin and the pearlin and the berry fields o Blair We'll meet up wi oor kin folk frae a' the country roond
When the gang-aboot folk tak the road and yellow's on the broom.
Betsy and her folk lived their lives appreciating that there was a right time, for them, to do things. A time to stay in one place and a time to move on.
Those words echo the ones found in Ecclesiastes – ‘To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.’
It is our time just now, during the pandemic, to wait. To wait in our homes. To wait on the pavement and shop to let people walk past us at a safe distance. To wait for the news of when things will be changing.
We know that we do not wait alone. God waits with us. This is a time for waiting. And one day, there will be a time for us to move on.
