Monday's Child

Last Sunday was my friend Susan’s birthday. Facebook made it easy for me to send her birthday greetings. Since I had her birth date, I decided to look up what day she was born on. I remembered that poem Monday’s Child that goes like this:

Mondays child is fair of face,
Tuesdays child is full of grace,
Wednesdays child is full of woe,
Thursdays child has far to go,
Fridays child is loving and giving,
Saturdays child works hard for a living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

I found out that Susan was born on a Saturday. She does indeed work hard for a living. She works at the high school in Pittsfield, IL as the food services director and is also transportation secretary plus she drives a school bus when needed. I decided to look up my other friends and family to see what day they were born on (yes, I did look up each one individually). If your name isn’t listed here, it’s because you chose not to share your birth year on your Facebook page.

Monday’s child is fair of face – My brothers Rick and Mike were both born on a Monday. Of course I’m gonna say they are both good looking!! It runs in the family, doesn’t it? Some of my good looking friends born on Monday are Ahron, Gail, Kristen, Bridgett and Larry C.

Tuesday’s child is full of grace – Rick and I were both born on a Tuesday. Graceful? I don’t know about that. But I do know we are saved by grace through the blood of Jesus. Crystall, Dale, Jenna, and Rich all share this day.

Wednesday’s child is full of woe – I was not looking forward to seeing who was born on a Wednesday. Webster defines woe as “Deep distress or misery, as from grief; wretchedness. Synonyms are regret, misfortune, calamity.” I wish woe on no one. I discovered my son Jeff was born on a Wednesday. I thought he was going to be born on a Tuesday, but 36 hours of labor pushed him over to the next day. So far I see no woe in his life. Friends Patty, BJ, Fran, Linda Mc, Jerri, Janet, Richard, and Troy are also Wednesday children. Interestingly, out of all of the people I looked up, Wednesday contains the largest group with nine.

Thursday’s child has far to go – I’m not sure how to interpret this. “Far to go” may mean they will travel far in distance or life or maybe they have to go the extra mile beyond everyone else to succeed. I don’t know but Becky, Debbie L, John F, Larry T, Phyllis R, and Rhonda all have “far to go.”

Friday’s child is loving and giving – Dr. Phil was born on a Friday and we all know how giving he is as seen on the Dr. Phil Show. Friends Alice, Blyss, Nancy , Stu, and Tom were also born on a Friday. Everyone loves Fridays!

Saturday’s child works hard for a living – In addition to my friend Susan, Debbie O, Sara, Ed D (not Big Ed), and Phylis H share this day. Nothing wrong with a little hard work.

The child born on the Sabbath day is bonny and blithe and good and gay – Bonny is defined as “pleasing to the eye” and blithe means “carefree.” My best friend Barb was born on a Sunday. I’m not surprised. She is such a beautiful person inside and out. Evan, Rita, and Teresa were also born on Sunday. It was the smallest group with only 4 out of the 42 friends being born on this day. Sunday is the Lord’s day and that makes it a very special day.

After going through this exercise, I have come to the conclusion that the attributes ascribed to children born on each day of the poem apply to us all. I believe we are all fair of face, full of grace, full of woe, have far to go, are loving and giving, work hard for a living and no matter what our birth day, we are bonny and blithe and good and gay.