I gotta tell you about a song I just discovered. I was looking up all the songs Dolly Parton wrote. (There are hundreds!) And in the process, I bought some of them from itunes. Last night I was listening to them and ran across this gem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZbFZe4AiAY
These Old Bones
Song by Dolly Parton ‧ 2002
"These old bones will tell your story
These old bones will never lie
These old bones will tell you surely
What you can't see with your eye
These old bones, I shake and rattle
These old bones, I toss and roll
And it's all in where they scatter
Tells you what the future holds"
Oh, she lived up on the mountain
11 miles or so from town
With a one-eyed cat named Wink
A billy goat and a blue tick hound
Her graying hair was braided
And wrapped around her head
And her dress was long and faded
And her home a rusty shed
In a little pouch of burlap
Tied with a piece of twine
There were bones all shapes and sizes
Gathered through the course of time
She'd throw them out before you
She swore that she could see
The present, past, and future
She could read your destiny
Everybody knew about her
Came to get their fortune read
Concerning health and wealth and power
Who to love and when to wed
"Well, I just like helping people
I'm just glad that I could help
Well, I know everybody's secrets
But I keep it to myself"
"These old bones will tell your story
These old bones will never lie
These old bones will tell you surely
What you can't see with your eye
These old bones, I shake and rattle
These old bones, I toss and roll
And it's all in where they scatter
Tells you what the future holds"
Some called her a witchy woman
Some said she was insane
Some said she was a prophet
Still everybody came
"Just because a body's different
Well, that don't make them mad
Well, they've crucified a many
For the special gifts they've had"
I had often heard about her
Dreamed about her now and then
For I, too, was clairvoyant
Came about when I was ten
I was fascinated with her
And the things I'd heard about
And I knew some day I'd meet her
And one day it came about
"Well, I knowed that you's a-comin'
I could feel it in my bones
These old bones have also told me
That I won't be here for long
Did you know that you's adopted?
Did you know you once't was mine?
But the county took you from me
Said I wasn't right in mind"
"But I just knowed I had to see you
'Fore these bones was laid to rest
So I conjured up a message
It musta worked, I guess
This gift runs in the family
I know you also know
And I passed this gift on to you
These old bones, they're just for show"
"These old bones will tell your story
These old bones will never lie
These old bones will tell you surely
How to live an' when you'll die
These old bones, I shake and rattle
These old bones, I toss and roll
And it's all in where they scatter
Tells you what the future holds"
I held her hand while she was dying
And with the funeral through
I headed on back up the mountain
For Billy, Wink and Blue
And that little pouch of burlap
With those bones so worn and old
She gave me something special
Now every time I throw
"These old bones will tell your story
These old bones will never lie
These old bones will tell you surely
What you can't see with your eye
These old bones, I shake and rattle
These old bones, I toss and roll
And it's all in how they scatter
Tells you what the future holds"
"Now I can't tell you what you want to hear
I just tell you what I see
It's these old bones a-talking
Blame it on them; don't pack it on me
It's just like that time that there boy died
up at the sawmill
Well, I know'd who done it, but I never said
And I know'd when somebody is a cheating
Or when somebody's baby was going to be born dead
But unless somebody just plain out and asked me
Well, I just figured there ain't no point
Going around acting like you know everything
Just because you might
Ah, you know girl I want you to take these bones
Because I don't want no youngun of mine going around unprepared
You just remember that the magic is inside you
There ain't no crystal ball"
* * *
This song speaks to me so strongly, because we do have some "witchy" women on one branch of our family tree. I don't know if I have the gift or not (I've been told by two different psychics that I do), but I know my mother did, to some extent. And her Grandma Burford had it for sure.
* * *
And that reminds me of another story -- I was listening to a guided meditation one time a few years ago. It was supposed to reveal to you who your spirit guide is. The guided imagery took me through a walk in the forest, and ended at a little cabin deep in the woods. Whoever opened the door to that cabin to let you in, that is your spirit guide.
Well, in my meditation the person who opened that door was an old woman, kind of stooped over, dressed all in black, with long dark braided hair. I didn't much like that, and I thought it probably came into my mind that way because of the fairy tales I read as a child, where the old woman in the cottage deep in the woods always turned out to be a witch.
Then, a few years later, when I was working on researching the family history, I ran across this picture of my great-great-grandmother, Malisa Hicks.
Um... okay, then.
