The sleep of a child

I think I have written a blog similar to this, somewhere back yonder in sleep-deprived blogosphere...but no matter.

First off, here's what I'm listening to right now, my song of the very early morning:

Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt.

Utterly gorgeous and uplifting. Click here to listen to it.




Every night before I go to bed, I creep into Maya and Lily's bedroom. Not that I need to creep - this is the time of night they are in their deepest sleep and very, very little would wake them I'd imagine. I sit with them for a few minutes...smooth a sweaty curl away from a forehead. Rearrange a discarded blanket. Tuck a teddy back under an arm. Watch their small chests rising and falling with the smooth regularity that heavy sleep brings.


It gives me so much pleasure to be there. Knowing that they are safe. Knowing that they are loved. Knowing that they are asleep. 


And knowing that three decades ago, that was me. A small Rebecca, lying somewhere in a cot, ensconced in a dreamworld of houses with dolls and endless days and songs with the texture of the sky.