Quiet Down Cobwebs

I never had a very good rocking chair when Hayden was an infant so I didn't get the pleasure of rocking him every day. That was one thing I really really wanted to be able to do with Dallin, but due to our financial situation I came to the heartbreaking realization that it wouldn't be practical to purchase a new glider.

While expressing my sorrow to Mike's aunt she very kindly offered me the beautiful glider that sat in the corner of her bedroom that has never been used. I am so grateful for her and her generosity and I will always cherish my rocking chair.

To sum up how important a rocking chair is to me, I'm taking a few words from an email a friend sent me after telling her I was going to be sensible and not spend money or gift cards on something so silly as a rocking chair:

Almost ten years later, it is still in the nursery- stained from years of use. At one point, it had been broken by my kids, and I came home from my grandma's funeral to find it pieced back together and repaired. I still rock my babies in it. Whenever I sit there, I think of an article I once read about how generations of women have rocked their babies. A million things make our lives so different from our ancestors, but a mother rocking her baby is an image that spans the centuries.

Babies Don’t Keep
By Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due,
Lullabye, rockaby, lullabye loo.
The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo,
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo,
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs;
Dust go to sleep!
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.