Old Bones

 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.