Morning Has Broken and Reflections

Morning Has Broken, a song made popular during the 1970s, was originally a Christian hymn. It was based on a Scottish Gaelic melody known as a "Bunessan" which is a small village in the south-west of the island of Mull off the west coast of Scotland.

The song was originally a Christmas carol known as Child in the Manger, written by Mary MacDonald who lived 1789 to 1872. Words were added by children's author and poet, Eleanor Farjeon, born in 1881, who earned a living as a poet, journalist and broadcaster. The song was first recorded in 1931 and was sung mostly in children's services as a religious hymn.

And this is done by music artist of the seventies, Cat Stevens.

Songs and melodies can reach out with a few notes and take us back, bringing a flood of memories of our youth. These thoughts, lost in the sieve of time, remain buried until a tune like this one plays on the radio. Without warning, memories often come flooding back, the good times right along with the bad.

Young love, first love, unrequited love: we're never again the same once we've experienced it.

"Oh, to be young, and feel love's keen sting," says Albus Dumbledore of Harry Potter fame. The kind of youthful love that's never forgotten, love that brings with it stinging, burning passion, often times is remembered as far better than it was in reality.

Some memories are better left to rest in the corners of our minds, "Fading like a flowered print on a sunny wall," quips Paul Winfield, of City Confidential.

I'm remembering a fellow writer today, Dusty, gone from this earth and yet not forgotten. He wrote this comment on my article when it was published elsewhere. Thanks, Dusty. You are missed.