Bedtime Rituals

Heavenly Father, hear my prayer
Keep me in your loving care
Guard me through the starry night
And wake me up when the sun shines bright

That was our ritual bedtime prayer, along with the Shema, a very brief Hebrew prayer that is the basis for Jewish belief. Aside from the blatant patriarchal slant, it's not a bad prayer. (Certainly better than that scary one, "Now I lay me down to sleep.") I moved past being tucked in pretty quickly; probably by the time I was 7 or 8. Well, there were two younger ones by then.

If I were to write myself a new bedtime prayer, one that fits my current beliefs (loosey-goosey as they are), it would be something like this:

Gods and Goddesses, Sprites, Fairies and Spirits
Bring me joyous dreams of adventure and discovery
Bring me peaceful dreams of comfort and serenity
Bring me hopeful dreams of strength and opportunity
Let me wake at dawn,
with a heart so full of gratitude and forgiveness,
that there is no room for anything else.

And help me to be less cranky.

Photos: Cousins 1 & 2, smiling Sis, The Coot with Shirley Temple and...Chuckie?