My granddaughter spent the weekend with me.
She is 3. She
wakes up in the morning and creeps silently into my room and peers up over the
end of my bed. If she cannot see me she stealthily creeps around to the side
where she can. As soon as she has made eye contact she joyfully shouts I am
awake! Part announcement, part surprise, and part mystery as if she thought
maybe she would not be awake in the morning. As if the prayer….
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I shall die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen.
…had her believing she may not awake.
Ever wonder where this little bedtime prayer came from?
This version by Joseph Addison…
When I lay me down to Sleep,
I recommend myself to his care;
when I awake, I give myself up to his Direction.
…appeared in 1711 on March 8 in The Spectator.
The other
version was printed in The New England Primer at a later date.
Do I awake with this sort of mystified joy? Did you?
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