Early Morning Delight

Waking up before 6:00 a.m. is not unusual for me. Getting my ass out of bed at that time without some really compelling reason is. I love the luxuriousness of lounging in bed--it's one of the many things I find to be sincerely spiritual--and since I have conveniently not had kids or dogs who are demanding at all hours of the day and night, I can pretty much do this if I wish...at least during the summer. Nine months out of the year, of course, I'm a slave to the alarm clock. But we're not dwelling on that right now, la la la la.

This morning I was out of bed, tea brewing, before the sun came up. The thought of watching the sun rise over the mountains--on my balcony and not in the car on the way to work, thank you very much--appealed to that hazy romantic part of me that you all know I like so much. Sunrises make me think of the beach, and the beach is my all-time ultimate forever happy place, so it seemed a definite win-win all the way around. So tea in one hand, book on contemplative prayer in the other (God and I have simply got to get this thing worked out), I padded out to the patio to Be At Peace. I even put on pants, which was not strictly necessary but seemed in good taste. Wanting to share the joy, I took los gatos Fifi, Max, and foster boy Shadow "Fang" Poofalicious, plus the wabbit, out with me. The family that plays together stays together, you know.

Aside from Fifi's intermittent hissing at Fang because he existed in her world, it was beautifully quiet. (Well, and there was my Loud Neighbor's Very Loud Alarm Clock at 6:15 but he eventually turned it off and what I learned about him is that alarm clocks mean nothing because it's almost an hour later and there are still no signs of life over there. Huh, maybe he was up too late last night harassing his girlfriend and making loud, unidentifiable noises for the whole neighborhood to hear and now he's exhausted. Poor thing. Maybe I should throw a rock or something.) The birds are quite daring at that hour. They circle and buzz the houses like mad things and seemed to have a fine time taunting the cats with their inaccessibility. Fifi sat on the balcony wall and stared at them, occasionally making a jumping movement as if she might actually catch one. As if. (Although it must be noted that last year she did catch a bird that was kind of slow and 'tarded but her mother made her release it, which is probably is a contributing factor to all this grumpyass mood of hers.) I do think that I inadvertently swallowed a small spider with my tea while being At Peace, which was okay for me but probably not so much for the spider.

It was a quiet and fabulous way to start the day, despite the reprimanding I had to give Bugs for eating my plants. (He is a wabbit, after all, so he does get some special dispensation there.) After his scoldings, he ran behind all the plants to his secret place and nibbled loudly on a plastic plant tray. He really showed me, he did, because that was not at all conducive to my Peace.

Since my voyage south to the coast is a mere week and a half away, I'll consider this morning as training for impending sunrises over the ocean. The really lovely thing about getting up early there is that I can sit on the porch with my brother Jack, who is the ultimate early riser and who is very pleasant to just sit with and be. The other lovely thing there is that if you get up early you get first dibs on leftover noshies, which, believe me, becomes important in a house with 25+ people. Do not swanker in at 10:30, rubbing your eyes, and expect to get some cheese toast.

Thanks for sharing my early morning with me. I'm curious--what gets you out of bed in the morning (and work doesn't count because, well...duh)?? Feel free to answer in haiku if you like, or just regular prose. Or single syllables. Or grunts, especially if getting up early just does not work for you.

And now, it's time for cheese toast.

*Truth in advertising: this picture was actually taken at sunset, but it was all I had. Sorry. Still, isn't the big boy handsome?