Short Story

These are actually lyrics - to a song my Dad would sing to me ever since I was a little girl. When I was about 3 or 4 (old enough to understand it), I would beg him to sing it - and he would refuse, because I would cry every time. I would promise not to cry if he sang it for me. And I would bawl anyway. He sang it at my wedding reception. It's one of my all time favourite songs. I love it even more now that I have a daughter too. I would love to have these lyrics done up nicely and framed in her room:-) Even reading the words makes me tear up, and they read well as a poem - especially if you have a daughter, you'll enjoy this

To A Sleeping Beauty - by Jimmy Dean

Dear daughter I tiptoed to your room tonight
And I looked down at you smiling in your sleep
You were so lovely my heart nearly broke
And I thought how very much like sleeping beauty a little girl is
When I tuck you in at night I never know how old you'll be when you wake

One evening you crawl on your dad's lap and throw your arms around his neck
The next morning you might be much too grownup for that sort of thing
You're so quickly approaching that awkward age
Too young to drive a car and yet too old to be carried into the house half asleep on daddy's shoulder

I have a secret that I've never told you Sleeping Beauty
You're going on a very exciting trip
You'll travel from yesterday all the way to tomorrow
It's a rapid journey and you'll travel light
Leaving behind your measles, mumps, freckles, bumps, bubblegum, and me
I promise not to feel too hurt when you discover that the world is more important than your daddy's lap

Yesterday you were blue-jeaned and pig-tailed, the neighbourhood's best tree-climber
Tomorrow you'll be blue-organdy and pony-tailed
And you'll view the world from a loftier perch, a pair of high-heel shoes
Yesterday you could mend a doll's broken leg with a hug
Tomorrow you'll be able to break a young man's heart with a kiss
Yesterday you could get lost one aisle away from me in a supermarket
Now I have to worry about losing you down another aisle to some strange young man

You see just at the point where your growing pains stop, mine begin
Yesterday you were kind of a pain in the neck when you were around
Tomorrow you'll be an ache in my heart when you're not
Tomorrow you'll lay aside your jump-rope and tie up the telephone lines
And that little boy that used to push you in the mud, well, he'll fight to set out a dance with you
The clock upstairs is counting the minutes for you
And the sky upstairs is saving its brightest stars
And the sun is waiting with its shiniest days

Oh I can't expect you to live in a dollhouse forever
Sooner or later the butterfly sheds its cocoon and the smallest bird must try its wings
But when you grow up and out of my arms
When you finally get too big for my shirts
I'll still recall how you used to scatter dust and dolls impartially through every room in the house
But you spread sunshine too
The dust is settled, your mom picked up the dolls
But the sunshine will always fill the corners of our hearts

So here I am talking in your sleep
Because, well, if you saw this look on my face you'd laugh
And if I spoke with this lump in my throat I'd cry

Yeah honey when I looked at you tonight you were a Sleeping Beauty
So I tiptoed over and I kissed you
You didn't wake up, I knew you wouldn't
According to the legend only the handsome young prince can open your eyes
And I'm just the father of a future bride
So you sleep on pretty thing, tomorrow you'll awake and you'll be a young lady
And you won't even realize that you've changed courses in the middle of a dream

But you might notice a little change in me
I might look a little different somehow, a little sadder, a little wiser, but a whole lot richer

Tonight I kissed a princess and I feel like a king