Many years ago, a friend made me a mixedtape. On it was a song that really touched my heart. We did not have Shazam or other ways to identify songs and artists back then, nor was it easy to look up lyrics.

So I enjoyed my ignorance in thinking I knew what the lyrics said. I thought the lyrics stated, “They could be telling us cows don’t fly! But the children teach and there’s a wisdom by the wonder in their eyes.”

I loved that lyric. It spoke to me, because it showed how imagination and childhood fascination had a spiritual purity that was superior to all adult knowledge.

Funny thing is, I had the lyric all wrong.

Here are the correct lyrics for the song:  “There could be singing beneath the sky! There could be joy that does not fly!  With the children teaching us wisdom, By the wonder in their eyes.”

I feel a childlike wonder in realizing that the meaning is the same.

 Songs Of The Quendi II Wampum Song – by Sally Oldfield

There could be singing beneath the sky!

There could be joy that does not fly

With the children teaching us wisdom

By the wonder in their eyes.

With the children teaching us wisdom

By the wonder in their eyes.

There could be living on this land!

There could be peace for every man

With a woman weaving him wampum

By the light of the crimson sun

Sweet wise woman weaving him wampum

By the light of the crimson sun!