Baby's Lullaby

As she made her way into the large choir room to deliver a message to the teacher, her heart skipped a beat and a feeling of euphoria came over her. The young girls were singing "All The Pretty Little Horses." This is an old southern song, which, if I am correct, was sung to the babies of the plantation owners by their African American nannies. It goes something like this:

Hush a bye
Don't you cry
Go to sleepy little baby

When you wake
We'll have sweet cake
And all the pretty little horses

Blacks and Bays
Dapples and Greys
Six and twenty little horses

Blacks and Bays
Dapples and Greys
Six and twenty little horses

When she was in college, she took a voice class to help ease her fear of singing in front of an audience. You see, she wanted to be an actress...a real actress...who could act, sing and dance. She was comfortable with the acting and dancing, but had no experience singing. "All the Pretty Little Horses" was the song she learned in class, and sang for her final project. She didn't know why she picked that song; something in her gut told her to learn the song.

She stopped pursuing her acting career and decided to take a different path in her great journey of life. On that path, she and her husband of eight years decided to start a family. During the next eight years of her journey, she had four children. She sang this song to each of her babies during the first years of their lives. She would wrap her arms around them and hold them close. Each one of them knew that when mommy sang this song, they were the center of the universe and nothing else mattered but them. The song was especially soothing to her fourth child, who was so sensitive, she would have a meltdown if someone looked at her with raised eyebrows. The melody and words would calm the little girl and turn her tears into smiles.

On her way out of the choir room, one could see a single tear falling from her eye. But the corner of her smiling mouth stopped the tear, and for a moment, she felt the bliss of knowing how very lucky and blessed she was to have babies who loved hearing her sing this song...now she knew why her gut had told her to learn it.