Bittersweet St. Patrick's Day

I thought I'd do a cute little post today. But then I remembered of one of my favorite songs. I haven't listened to it in a long time. It used to make me think of my kiddo. But when I looked at the lyrics just now, it made me think of my own mother. I think you'll see why.

An Irish Lullaby

Over in Killarney
Many years ago,
Me Mither sang a song to me
In tones so sweet and low.
Just a simple little ditty,
In her good ould Irish way,
And I'd give the world if she could sing
That song to me this day.

"Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, hush now, don't you cry!
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, Too-ra-loo-ra-li,
Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral, that's an Irish lullaby."

Oft in dreams I wander
To that cot again,
I feel her arms a-huggin' me
As when she held me then.
And I hear her voice a -hummin'
To me as in days of yore,
When she used to rock me fast asleep
Outside the cabin door.

In addition to missing my mother, I've been so sad over the terrible events in Japan. I was born there. At Johnson Air Force Base. I found this picture when I was looking through my mother's scrapbooks last weekend.

So when I was looking for a good version of The Irish Lullaby on YouTube, I ran across this. A beautiful rendition in Japanese. I think it's a perfect way to honor the beautiful Japanese people.

鮫島有美子　アイルランドの子守歌


Life is filled with joy and sadness. Sweetness and sorrow. Pleasure and pain. It seems I've experienced so much of these lately. And as hard as it can be, the bad things make the good things that much better. The best I can hope for is some sort of balance. The titles of these last two posts include the word I think best describes my life these days. Bittersweet...