America's Favorite Nursery Rhyme - An Original Story
Effie Crockett was invited to help some mothers in the Muskogee Tribe. Once she arrived in camp, Effie laughed at what she saw. The Muskogee Tribe had a custom of cradling their pappooses among the swaying branches of birch trees. This protected their babies from ground insects, the sun, and wild animals.
After first finding it funny, she soon learned all the great reasons for this practice and marveled at the beauty of it.
Effie watched the swaying and soothing motion of the topmost branches of the trees. She loved how each baby enjoyed nature, how they listened to the songbirds, observed every ladybug, and smiled at the colors of a butterfly, every little breeze was felt and enjoyed by these young ones; each babe seemed perfectly content.
One of the Tribal mothers began to sing a song to the children in her native tongue. As the Muskogee mother sang, Miss Effie observed a small tear running down the mother’s cheek.
Effie translated the words and kept the tune. She shared it with everyone and it soon became a wildly popular nursery rhyme among the Colonies.
The English translation:
Rock-a-bye baby on the tree top,
When the wind blows the cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall,
And down will come baby, cradle and all.
Why did the Muskogee mother cry?
A “bough” is simply a tree branch, and its breaking was used by the Muskogee mothers as an analogy of their little baby growing up.
Their little baby would soon outgrow his cradle. With each gently rocking wind, time was passing. One day, the little baby would no longer need the protection of their mother. One day, the “branch” would break because her little baby had become too heavy. The “cradle” would fall to the earth – the child, no longer a baby, would dust themselves off and grow into a self-responsible adult.
The now-famous lullaby was first printed in Mother Goose’s Melody.
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I sang this song to my kids and my grandsons.
There is something about this song I never knew until reading this ....the sadness when our kids are growing up and are no longer babies or toddlers.... And become adults.
Every moment is precious - please take time to savor it with loved ones.
When I think about my father and his quick descent with dementia - I feel guilt around not spending more time with him - while he was of more sound mind
Taking care of him and my grandkids now - I am reminded why I started these self- care & self,-live retreats ...because I am doing a lot and my spiritual time and focus for myself and my journey-- is not as much as I would like, the retreats are for me too. The retreats are for any women who have felt the sadness of babies growing up or parents leaving the physical realm - who want to celebrate and honor themselves and their paths.
Each retreat has beloved and pre-retreat summits and I have added several new speakers.
More details to come on Sept event - hybrid retreat Nice, France Sept 19 to 23 ( virtual summit Sept 13 to 16th)