7 Comments
User's avatar
Lesley Harrison's avatar

Ach, Niall. That song always stops me in my tracks ....

Yes, a lovely read.

Expand full comment
Suzannah Storm Goss's avatar

Enjoyed this perspective, songs, poetry, new books. I sang to my newborns, lulled them to sleep, especially as my second born had colic. Soothed both of us. Skye Boat Song and Kumbaya. "...I feel now, explained to my own children"

Expand full comment
Roger Hare's avatar

Loved this...... & very struck by . "I sang and – I feel now – I explained myself to my own child." - how wonderful!

Expand full comment
Alison Angell's avatar

So beautiful, Niall. As someone in this exact phase right now, this resonated completely this morning.

Expand full comment
Mags Wallis's avatar

Good to read and remember those nighttime lulling songs. Thank you.

It made me hark back to the song I created to settle myself when I started the unsettling process of moving home a few years ago -

'there's a place waiting for you calling you home, listen, listen, calling you home'

In 2024 both my parents died about 6 months apart. I sang the same song to each of them during their process of dying. It wasn't a song about 'heaven' or anything certain.

Like you said, it was for me and for each of them, the song reaching out as a bridge between their world and mine.

Expand full comment
Chris Miller's avatar

Lovely! Sometimes, even in adulthood, they want their sleepsongs again, when ill or unhappy and just going to bed to light out of the world for a bit. They'll come back to those songs.

Expand full comment
Kim Whysall-Hammond's avatar

This was a lovely read.

The age of singing, the age of playing and joint adventures, the age of letting go…

Expand full comment