Morning Has Broken

Several years ago, Husband rushed in from work with anticipated eagerness. Almost breathless, he asked, “Do you know the song Morning Has Broken?”

“I know one Cat Stevens sang in the early 1970’s. Why, what caused you to think about it?” 

“Do you know who wrote it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, it wasn’t Cat Stevens. It was a woman named Eleanor Farjeaon. She lived in England from 1881 to 1965.”

Then he began to sing:

Morning has broken, like the first morning; Blackbird has spoken,
like the first bird. Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for the springing fresh from the word

“So was she the wife or daughter of a pastor?”

“Both of her parents were Jewish by race and religion. She became a Catholic in her older years. On the Internet I learned that in 1931 an English vicar was collecting songs for a new edition of the hymnbook Songs of Praise. He asked her to write a poem to a traditional Gaelic tune. He wanted something about creation, but not necessarily did it have to be totally Christian."

“I recall being challenged to remember the words are not so much about creation as the Garden of Eden. But I see it as a praise song that is really appropriate for beginning the day. I thought it might have been written mostly for children,” I remarked. “When I graduated from college in 1972, one of the high school girls played her guitar and sang it to us at the church graduation breakfast. I attached the song to Cat Stevens. Being a traditionalist, I was shocked that she sang it at a church event. As I said, I’ve come to see it as a praise song although I wouldn’t want to see it in a hymnal. After all it talks about the beauty of the Garden, but it says nothing about the sins of Adam and Eve that got them kicked out of the garden.”

Undoubtedly I use too many words. Husband’s attention was on the mail as he hummed the tune.

But he looked up and said, “I was thinking about the tune this morning, so I looked it up. Part of the information said that the poem was published several years ago in a book of children’s poems. I see myself as a child thinking about the springtime. I think I would have liked this poem when I was a boy.”

Thinking about his love of nature and growing plants, I understood his interest in the poem and the picture words he could form in his mind. Knowing what we now do about his ADHD, we see the connection and explanation. Things of nature gave him a purpose and meaning to life that he often did not find in other activities. When I think of nature and new growth, I link the concept to values and hope. Possibly nature spurs on his sense of hope.

If you or a person with ADHD you know might benefit from a stronger sense of hope, we invite you to contact us at McNay & Voth. ADHD coaching will help you or your person set goals that are based on strengths and to create strategies that will effectively move you or your person along in daily living.

Contact us at www.coachadhd.com or phone 316-655-9807.

We sincerely care,

Dr. Atha McNay and McNay & Voth Gateway Community