Something I wrote many, many years ago for my daughter. I would say it each night before kissing her on the forehead and tucking the covers in tight around her. Was strange that I had come across it and it brought back memories. It used to be such a ritual getting her to bed every night, it would always start with:
I love you little...
I love you big...
I love you like a little pig...
Then we would start a little banter:
Love you Kelly...
I love you more dad...
No I do...
I love you more than anything in the world dad...
I love you so much that they don't make a word for it... even more than that.
Now she is grown, 26 years old, married and has given me three beautiful grandsons. It is so hard to believe that when I look at her now that she is that little curly red headed baby that I used to rock to sleep, sing to and run through the house with. All the "airplanes" and "horsey" rides as I listened to Linda, "Ron, please be careful, she is not a toy". But she was wrong, she was daddy's toy. The one I would think about all day while I worked and couldn't wait to get home to. I can still see her little face looking out the living room window waiting for me to come home. Patiently with a smile I could see her, at least from my angle of view she seemed patient. Linda would tell me that she would be dancing at the window letting her know I was home.
All the boo boo's...skinned knees, elbows, bumps and bruises...pain kissed away, tears dried and on to things to take her mind off it.
Time passed and I watched my little girl grow and soon our good nights were fewer and fewer, she felt she was too old at the age of 9 to go through our little ritual. I did not want to lose that and I thought of ways we could elevate our good night ritual to a more mature level. So I sat one evening after she had went to bed, I had been reading Lord of the Rings to her and she said she wished she could have lived some place like that, so it came to me...
now to sleep...
perhaps to dream...
to dream the dreams only a dream weaver can dream...
to catch sight of mystic light...
beyond the universe's realm...
where dragons fly and wizards vie for a place in a requiem...
where no man walks and no voice is heard and time stands vigil over all...
in this place so far away only dreams come to call...
....sweet dreams ....
I wonder if before she closes her eyes now at night if she thinks of those nights I would read to her and we would exchange our good nights...
Good night my little Princess...I miss you...
Later...
Dad
1 comment:
I believe that when we are young we are filled with hopes and dreams for the future and eagerly we grow and rush to take our place in the adult world.
When we are at my age we we live and look to the now and experience each moment as it happens and perhaps play in the shallow waters.
When we are older we look back and I love to sit with my Father as he tells me the stories of when I was little and even before I was born. I value that because when I was little having time with father was very rare for me because he always seemed to be working.
Those special and precious moments you remember were special to you and her at that time. They were important in those moments, but as she reached from seven out until nine she had grown beyond those moments and different things were important to her.
They are not forgotten, some of the songs my Mother sang to me I have sung to Kiyoshichan, my niece and the games she played with me I play with her.
Perhaps one day she will sing and play with her children the same things.
Perhaps Kelly has special rhymes and songs for her children. Ones that were influenced by you. They are not forgotten, they just happen in a different place and to someone who finds smiles and comfort in those precious moments together.
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