Last night around 10 p.m., I was sitting at the dining room table with my portable computer before me, doing my ambitious woman blogger thing, setting up my posts for today.

My 10-year-old Chattering, who’d gone to bed 30 minutes earlier, descended the stairs and walked toward me, looking most adorable in his underwear.

“Mommy, I can’t sleep. I don’t know if it’s because today was the first day of school, or if it’s just hot in my room.”

“Hmmmm,” said I. After hours, I get into a space where I don’t like to speak. I just want to do what I want to do, you know? But I tore myself away from Blogger.com long enough to say, “Okay!”

I stood up and faced him. “Just look at me, and repeat: God is in his heaven…” I said.

“God is in his heaven.” He looked quizzically at me, but he’s kind of getting used to this sort of thing.

“All’s right with the world.”

“All’s right with the world.”

“God’s in his heaven. All’s right with the world.”

“God’s in his heaven. All’s right with the world.”

“Now, get into bed and close your eyes and keep saying that.”

“O-kay.”

“God’s in..”

“God’s in his heaven.”

“All’s right with the world. It should help.”

My son walked away repeating this, but when he got to the bottom of the stairs he turned and asked, “Is this a trick?”

“Ahhhh… hmmm. It works. It’s very calming.”

“O-kay.” He put one foot on the stairs and started mounting, happily muttering “God’s in his heaven, all’s right…”

It’s a line from a Robert Browning poem called “Pippa Passes.” You may also know it as the last recited line of the book “Anne of Green Gables.”

So I ask you, my readers, as we edge toward the fifth anniversary of 9/ll: Is the verse true? Is God in his heaven? And is the world alright? Or what? Can such a line ever be true for all of us at the same time? Is there an order to the events unfolding? How divine is it?

I don’t have the answers. But my son went to sleep. And I got my work done by a chiming clock we keep to toll the hours.