Irish Lullaby

My little ones still sleep with night lights and are afraid of the dark, as are most little kids, I guess. When I try to tell them that the only difference between a room with light and one without is the light itself, or use empirical arguments like have you or anyone else ever seen any monsters, etc., it makes not the slightest impression on them, as they are quite certain that something is there. Proof is not the issue, as their imaginations are proof enough. And why not? We fill their heads with notions of magic and mystical characters, so why not ghosties and things that go bump in the night? But eventually many of us lose our fear of the dark as we come to know that nothing is there. And then we begin to hope that there is.

My daughter asked me tonight, as she often does, to sing her a lullaby as I finished tucking her in. But tonight she cried, as she said she knew that I would one day be gone and not sing to her "in tones so sweet and low." Soon she will not fear the dark, but now I do.