Today I announced to my wife that every morning I wake, I feel joy at having another day with her in it. This will be too sickly sweet for some readers yet I’m in earnest. For as long as I can remember, morning has been the best part of my day, I sing in the morning! I Zip-a-dee-doo-dah to the glory of another beautiful day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bWyhj7siEY. On this particular morning, I proclaimed how my partner continues to be an essential part of my happiness.
I know others who embrace the sunrise with enthusiasm, perhaps pulling on runners and jogging off into the sweaty distance. I’m not one of those energized ‘Morning Larks’ any more than I am a ‘Night Owl’. My mornings have no imperatives and are not as manic as I might be presenting. I greet them calmly, with coffee in hand, as an appreciative witness, with expansive wonder and abundant gratitude. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0TInLOJuUM
I have written poems on mornings. Some poets write about mournful experiences and revel in the mire of despair. I can be sad but I fail to see what can ever be sad about dawn: It is the beginning of a new day! Nothing bad has happened yet. Possibilities are out there to be grasped. Carpe Diem!
Several years of my teaching career were not sunny on awakening. My walk to school was filled with dread since the principal at my school would notoriously sit up all night preparing ‘changes’ that would be translated into operational edicts. Many were terrorized by this man’s obsessions. Those horrible mornings began a depressive spiral that sent me into medical sick leave. My optimistic outlook was shattered. My hopeful view of morning had been broken. But those were rainy days of despair. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPmbT5XC-q0
I’m better now, even though I live in a temperate rainforest. Rainy mornings bring a smile to my lips as I linger (post retirement) in the warm folds of my bedsheets. I’ve run for the morning cup of coffee, some cookies and the newspaper. Now with the rain drops patterning on the window I surrender to the morning and hope it lasts past noon.
There is inevitability to mornings. Sometimes I feel resigned to the pattern of my place on the planet as it speeds in its orbit around the light source. Sometimes I have celebrated the new day by pondering possibilities of action: “Will this be the day I ask her out?” “I’m not letting another day go by without demanding that raise.” “I shan’t spend another day cooped up inside!” “Today is the day I tackle those tax forms.” So many choices await at daybreak. Whether we realize it or not, get excited or not, embrace it or not, a new day will begin, every 24 hours. This joyful scene clip from Peter Rabbit is beautifully imitated by Olivia, in the spirit of the morning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQBTyVYmG8U
Catch My Drift? 