Mary Had A Lamb

Hello, and thanks for stopping by. What are the pillars of sustainability in your life that keep you balanced? I have thinking about mine are this week. I’d love to hear what your pillars are. Love, kindness, and gratitude are mine I decided. The past week has delighted me with   huge dose of all three. I feel grounded in the love and kindness that has been shared with me with deep gratitude resulting. I am blessed. Do you think our hearts can smile? I do. Because mine is. 

Consider the definition of kindness gathered from various sources, as the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate, often demonstrated through voluntary acts of compassion, empathy, and helpfulness toward others. It involves a genuine desire to make a positive difference and can include small, everyday actions like listening or offering support, as well as bigger gestures. Kindness can be extended to oneself as well as to others and benefits both the giver and receiver. It boosts happiness and mental health, reduces stress, increases serotonin and dopamine, stimulates oxytocin, and contributes to strengthen social bonds, increase self-esteem, and contributes to a more positive community. What’s not to love about all that? In addition it is free, readily available with no shipping charges and we can access it anytime we want. So why not flood with world with it? Let’s give it a try, what could we lose? 

I was ruminating on kindness this morning when a friend sent me a post about Mary and I knew that I wanted to share it today. 

A little girl was born on a farm in Sterling, Massachusetts, in 1806. Her name was Mary Sawyer. What you may be asking does this have to do with kindness? I will tell you. Nnine-year-old Mary Sawyer was helping her father with chores in the barn. They discovered that one of their ewes had given birth to twin lambs overnight—but something was wrong. One lamb was healthy and nursing. The other had been rejected by its mother and was lying in the straw, barely breathing, too weak to even stand. Without its mother's care and milk, the tiny creature was dying of cold and hunger. Mary's heart broke at the sight.  

“I went out to the barn with father; and after the cows had been fed, we went to the sheep pen, and found two lambs which had been born in the night. One had been forsaken by its mother, and through neglect, cold and lack of food was nearly dead. I saw it had still a little life, and asked to take it into the house; but father said, No, it was almost dead, anyway, and at the best could live but a short time. But I couldn’t bear to see the poor little thing suffer, so I teased until I got it into the house. Then I worked upon mother’s sympathies. At first the little creature could not swallow, and the catnip tea mother made it could not take for a long time.

I got the lamb warm by wrapping it in an old garment and holding it in my arms beside the fireplace. All day long I nursed the lamb, and at night it could swallow just a little. Oh, how pleased I was! But even then I wasn’t sure it would live; so I sat up all night with it, fearing it wouldn’t be warm enough if there was not someone at hand to look out for its comfort. In the morning, much to my girlish delight, it could stand; and from that time it improved rapidly. It soon learned to drink milk; and from the time it would walk about, it would follow me anywhere if I only called it.”

Kindness in action produced amazing results. Now, what happened next was pure magic. That little lamb had imprinted on Mary and became completely devoted to her. The lamb recognized her voice and came running when Mary called. It followed her like a shadow, everywhere.  One morning Mary’s brother, Nat, said…hey Mary, let’s take her to school today. Now, Mary hesitated because no pets were allowed in the classroom of that little one room Redstone school. But Mary was clever and slipped that lamb into the schoolroom by hiding her in a tucked into a blanket under the desk, praying it would sleep and remain quiet. But alas, when Mary was called to the front of the class to recite a lesson, the lamb bleated when she heard her voice and trotted right up to the front of the class. Truly everywhere Mary went the lamb was sure to go. Of course the class erupted in chaos with everyone laughing, even Polly Kimball, the teacher. Nontheless, Polly advised her she must bring the lamb outside to wait in the shed until school ended that day. 

Now that might have been the end of the story except that a young man, John Roulstone, who had just come to town to study with his uncle, the local minister, to prepare for college, witnessed the entire debacle. He was amused and very charmed. The following day he rode across the fields to the little schoolhouse, and handed Mary a scrap of paper with three simple stanzas on it. Now I am sure you have guessed by now what was on that paper.

"Mary had a little lamb,

Its fleece was white as snow,

And everywhere that Mary went,

The lamb was sure to go. It followed her to school one day,

That was against the rule.

It made the children laugh and play,

To see a lamb at school…"

This little ditty became a treasure for Mary and she kept it for years. Now the story is not finished yet! In 1830 a well known author, Sarah Josepha Hale published a little book, Poems for Our Children. Tucked away in that book as a poem called “Mary’s Lamb.” It was the very verses that John Roulstone penned years before, with three additional stanzas that contained a moral lesson about kindness to animals. 

It was an instant success and printed and reprinted in school books across the country. 

By 1850 it was one of the most famous children’s poems in the country and children everywhere were singing those verses. From here the story gets even more remarkable. In 1877, Thomas Alva Edison was testing his now invention, the phonograph. It was the first machine capable of recording sound and playing it back. He chose “Mary Had a Little Lamb” as the words he recited to test it! Those words, recited by Edison’s voice, were the first sound ever captured by technology. 

In addition Henry Ford, who was building a historic village in Sudbury, Massachusetts needed just this kind of folklore to market his town to tourists. He actually moved her childhood school house to the village and released a book about Mary.  

At seventy, Mary finally shared her story publicly saying, “I am the Mary.”  Peopled loved learning that the woman behind that nursery Rhyme was alive and was real. Today a statue of that little lamb stand in Sterling, Massachusetts. The lesson here isn’t just about a pet following its owner but it is the back story, what happened before that day. It is about a little girl who was kind. She refused to let that helpless little lamb just perish. Everyone else had given up and accepted its fate. Mary fought for its life and won showing that kindness, perseverance, love, and compassion really creates miracles. Small acts of kindness ripple through the world and sometimes the gentlest hearts change the world. 

I think a post script is necessary as my research showed that there is much controversy over the claims of authorship. There are conflicting stories all seemingly without concrete proof. Nonetheless, I think the story stands on its own and is a lovely example of kindness. What we do know is that the story is real. There was a Mary and there was a lamb. 

Wishing you a peaceful week complete with whatever your pillars of sustainability are. 

This story was initially inspired by my dear friend, Barbara, who shared a post from A Solo Traveler.