Sneezles

Long before J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter there was A.A. Milne, the creator of Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh. In elementary school one of my teachers had each student pick a poem to memorize and recite to the class. I don’t remember how old I was, but this very well could have been one of my first “public speaking” venues.

I chose the poem Sneezles, by A.A. Milne. I memorized it and practiced my recitation over and over for family during a holiday gathering. I adapted a sing-song rhythm to the rhyme, I absolutely positively adored this poem.

I have not thought about Christopher Robin’s sneezles and wheezles for years and then I boarded another airplane yesterday. For the whole four-hour flight the man next to me hacked, and coughed and coughed even more. His wet, disgusting sounding cough had me turned and practically sitting in the aisle. Since I’ve contracted two respiratory infections within 48 hours of getting off an airplane, my seatmate was making me very nervous.

After we landed one of my first stops was the Fort Lauderdale Whole Foods. I bought some lung tonic and immune defense tonic. I’m swigging them both as we speak (or as I write and you read). Tomorrow I am teaching my corporate wellness classes, and this wellness teacher must be well! So far so good, now a long deep sleep will be icing on the cake!

Here is my favorite childhood poem. It makes me laugh when I read it and think about the industry I chose to work in, the slight hypochondria that creeps into my mind at times, and my whimsical side that occasionally comes out to play, like to-day 🙂

SNEEZLES
Christopher Robin
Had wheezles
And sneezles,
They bundled him
Into
His bed.
They gave him what goes
With a cold in the nose,
And some more for a cold
In the head.
They wondered
If wheezles
Could turn
Into measles,
If sneezles
Would turn
Into mumps;
They examined his chest
For a rash,
And the rest
Of his body for swellings and lumps.
They sent for some doctors
In sneezles
And wheezles
To tell them what ought
To be done.
All sorts and conditions
Of famous physicians
Came hurrying round
At a run.
They all made a note
Of the state of his throat,
They asked if he suffered from thirst;
They asked if the sneezles
Came after the wheezles,
Or if the first sneezle
Came first.
They said, “If you teazle
A sneezle
Or wheezle,
A measle
May easily grow.
But humour or pleazle
The wheezle
Or sneezle,
The measle
Will certainly go.
“They expounded the reazles
For sneezles
And wheezles,
The manner of measles
When new.
They said “If he freezles
In draughts and in breezles,
Then PHTHEEZLES
May even ensue.”

Christopher Robin
Got up in the morning,
The sneezles had vanished away.
And the look in his eye
Seemed to say to the sky,”Now, how to amuse them to-day?”