November 27, 2018
I have been an early riser all of my life. I suppose that came from being raised in a working class home where my father had to be up early for work. That set the pace for what has become a lifetime of preferring the early-to-bed-early-to-rise approach to life and productivity.
I must admit it was a little easier when I was younger. In high school, my teams would sometimes have practices for an hour before school started. These activities were not a problem for someone who was already well-entrenched in this way of being (note: little did I know that the teachers were giving up a lot of their own time to show up for these practices too - a fact I did not fully grasp until I was the teacher leaving my home and family at even earlier hours of the morning to coach the various school teams in their morning practices).
It was also a little easier to burn the candle at both ends while I was a student. Somehow, youth gives us nearly boundless energy and resilience so that we can pull all-nighters (staying up through the night to study or to complete assignments and still manage to carry on classes the next day). Now, not so much, and the challenge is staying up past 9 or 10! ;)
I understand why I have this desire to rise early in the morning - how I picked up through modeling, and through circumstance, - and I understand why it was important at certain points in my life. I appreciate that it was a life-saving facility (this ability to get up at the same time everyday as though by an internal alarm system) as life became busier and busier with jobs and children. What I don't understand is why, at this point in my life journey, I still get up, earlier than most, in the wee hours of the pre-dawn (as I type the rest of the household is still asleep).
I suppose the pattern is well-entrenched in my being and that I am simply continuing to do what I have always done on as though on autopilot mode - without thinking much bout it. Though that is the most obvious explanation, I have come to understand that there are other reasons.
I love the quiet and solitude of the early morning! There is something about the expectancy of a new day, and the anticipation of what the day may bring - almost Christmas -like in the excitement.
I also think that the early hours of the day are the most productive. I seem to be more alert and get more things done. Now that I have a small home recording space, I find the mornings to be the most efficient when I am working on music (I don't try to sing at these times, unless I really want to record that low rumbling vocal ;).
Finally, there is the simple fact of being alone. I enjoy my moments of solitude, where my thoughts are my own, and there are no interactions to distract or clutter.
Ah, the early morning! I love Gordon Lightfoot's song Early Morning Rain. Maybe that explains it all, too. I hear that song almost always as I peer into the darkness to see what the morning is bringing - rain, snow, a breeze, gusts blowing the autumn leaves - all observed before I closet myself away for a few hours of solitude and catching a few worms. Now where did I put my coffee mug?
T
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