Last night I held my sweet, little grandson in the crook of my arm. Together we watched the green stars shining on the ceiling of his darkened room. I began singing, and he watched me instead of the stars. I felt like the center of the universe.
I've been trying to call back to mind the songs I sang to my own babies just before bedtime and find that I've lost a lot of words. They will come back, but there are stretches of hums in most of my lullabies these days.
As I wondered what to post for St. Patrick's Day, I remembered the Irish lullaby, "Too-Ra, Loo-Ra, Loo-Ral." It was a song I sang way back when. Written in 1913 for the Tin Pan Alley musical, the song was a hit from the start. When Bing Crosby sang it in 1944 in Going My Way, the record single sold over a million copies, according to Wikipedia.
With a Bing Crosby fan in the house (hubs), my Pandora account is often tuned the Bing Crosby channel. And yes, I've seen Going My Way more than once.
I hope you enjoyed you day celebrating the saint.
I hope you wore green and didn't get pinched.
Enjoy this version of the lullaby, and then read an excerpt from St. Patrick's most famous poem, called "St. Patrick's Breastplate."
I bind to myself today
The power of Heaven,
The light of the sun,
The brightness of the moon,
The splendor of fire,
The flashing of lightning,
The swiftness of wind,
The depth of sea,
The stability of earth,
The compactness of rocks.
I bind to myself today
God's Power to guide me,
God's Might to uphold me,
God's Wisdom to teach me,
God's Eye to watch over me,
God's Ear to hear me,
God's Word to give me speech,
God's Hand to guide me,
God's Way to lie before me,
God's Shield to shelter me,
God's Host to secure me,
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And one last thing before I go. Balloons Literary Journal, Volume five is live and I have two poems in it! I'm delighted to be in this lovely book. More on this next week.
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