Robert Zimmerman and Bedtime Prayers

As we were getting the kids ready for bed last night, the sky suddenly darkened, as though all of the light had been sucked from it at once, leaving only an inky void. It stayed dark and motionless for half an hour and then a lightening storm lit up the sky, our whole yard illuminated in shocking flashes, every tree standing tall and black.

The Girl sat on her bed and watched the storm from the window, the wet street and the crackling sky, as we said bedtime prayers together. "... and thank You, God, for nature, Amen." I finished, rather inadequately, since I find thunderstorms rather terrifying, the sky suddenly bizarre and loud and tantrum-y. And today the sky is still a sullen grey, warning that it would be wise not to make any plans.

The kids say the same bedtime prayer every night, one you might remember from your own childhood:
Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep....

... and here we swerve away from the traditional version, which went:
if I die before I wake
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

Going with a much gentler, rather dumbed down:
Thy love guard me through the night
And wake me with the morning light.

Which sounds much NICER to my modern ear. Yes, let's remove all mention of nasty death from
my children's ears and mouths, filling them instead with love and light, this endless pleasant life stretching ahead of us. And yet we all will die, no matter how much I bowdlerize ancient children's prayers, and perhaps there is more actual comfort in the older, blunter words - but I still don't want my children saying them.

When I was midway through my pregnancy with The Boy - I've written about this before - I hemorrhaged heavily and was told at the hospital that my baby had died within me. I went home again, curled up miserably in a chair and listened to Forever Young, the old Bob Dylan song that goes:

May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true...

which has always been one of my baby songs, the songs that I would sing to my little children. Obviously, he did NOT die, and was born safe and sound and very nearly ten pounds several months later after a rather unfun but necessary period of extended bedrest and I still love that song, the lyrics summing up all of my wishes for my children, my prayer for them:


May you grow up to be righteous,
May you grow up to be true,
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you.
May you always be courageous,
Stand upright and be strong,
May you stay forever young