Nature is the greatest teacher and I learn from her best when others are asleep. In the still dark hours before sunrise God tells me of the plans I am to fulfill.
-George Washington Carver
Morning is my time. Even as a teen when my friends were being dragged out of bed by frustrated parents, I was never one to sleep in. Not just by choice. Physically I’ve always awakened early no matter what time I go to sleep, so that makes me an early to bed person as well. In college I’d find a bed to curl up on at late-night parties, then claim to have “passed out” in order to save face. Even then, 8:00AM was a late morning, and I don’t think I’ve ever in my life slept past 9:00AM unless I was sick.
Sometimes I’d like to be a night owl, making use of the wee hours, but with no more time clocks to punch and no more kids to get off to school, morning can be as quiet and productive a time for me as late nights. I can sit down at my computer and answer all my e-mails before even going down to breakfast where I still enjoy reading a printed newspaper with my morning coffee. But it is spring and summer, when I can sip my coffee outside, that I most love my mornings. For me, no nighttime activity can begin to compare with watching the sun rise in a morning sky and trying to judge by its gradations from yellow to orange to red what weather it will bring with it . Or listening to the birds tuning up for the day, first one or two here and there, then building to a crescendo.
Of all animals, birds seem to take the most inspiration from the start of a new day and the possibilities it holds. I take my cue from them.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
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3 comments:
Lovely post! I love birds too, as I believe they can bring us inspiration and messages. In the last two days, I've had a huge brown-bellied owl soar right over my car, seen a gorgeous hawk circle very closely above, and am now watching my spring doves looking for a place to nest on my patio. I don't get to see the sun come up every day, but this morning with the time change, I did. Loved watching the sun's smile creep up my window.
Yes, the sunrise is what we catch from our porch - and the site of those colors over the smokies - oh, nothing else like it.
I love watching the birds who visit the feeder when I come downstairs sometime in the morning to caffeinate myself. Night owl me doesn't remember the last sunrise I ever saw, but I do like my morning routines, and oh, those birds. There are so many at the feeder. The bright red cardinals look like ornaments in the bushes. Hawks, owls, falcons, chickadees. I have a Guide to the Birds that I keep in the kitchen to look up the new ones.
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