"The Beauty of the morning is like no other Beauty"

Happy Sunday.  It is 8:24 a.m. in my house.  I am sitting on my deck with a cup of coffee.  It is my second cup.  I got up around 6:30.  My plans today include folding laundry, grocery shopping, and hopefully a bike ride without too much rain.  My husband has been reviewing the river situation and I may find myself in my kayak this afternoon careening down some river that he has deemed, "probably pretty safe."  My son has left for work and my daughter has plans with some of her sweet friends this afternoon. But for this moment it is just me.  I always get up earlier than everyone else.  I am a morning person. I think it is because of the silence that I love the morning.  I wake up, grab my iPad and enjoy a few moments paging through Facebook and Instagram, looking at pictures and reading about things that people that I care about have done over the past day or so. Sometimes I look my online news sources, sometimes I get lost in Pintrest, sometimes I play a silly game on my iPad.  Usually I read a few pages (more if I can't resist) of whatever I have gotten my heart and head involved in.  Over the summer I have a book list a mile long, and I have already finished one book (my break started Friday) and checked into two more.  I am taking book recommendations now--if you are reading this, I would love to hear your recommendations!  I feel NO GUILT for doing whatever I choose in these moments of solitude in the morning.  I cherish morning.

My back yard (not this morning)


I am blessed to live kind of out of the way.  Its not like where I live is a big city or anything (however, Northwest Arkansas did just pass 500,000 people, which is really difficult for me to believe) but our home is kind of off the beaten path.  I do have a next door neighbor, but our little subdivision is sort of away from town.  It takes about ten minutes of driving to really get somewhere (not Sonic, I can get to a Sonic in about three minutes-which was a deal breaker for buying this land).  I am NOT a country girl, but I love being able to sit on my deck and look out at my wild back yard and listen to the birds in my pajamas.  Right now it is kind of cool, but I know that won't last long.  It is overcast and a little misty, but that just makes the greens come alive even more.  Although most people see me as energetic and maybe a little loud, I cherish the quiet of my mornings.  I get the chance to have a few peaceful moments.  I focus and think and reflect and pray in my moments.  I know this isn't earth shattering or revelatory, but it is significant in my life.  These quiet moments are just as much a part of me as the other parts; the mom/wife/teacher/sister/friend parts.  Without these quiet moments, I don't know what the other parts of me would be like.

My favorite girl and I kayaking a few weeks ago.
I just heard the water running, which means my people are about to join me for the day.  I am ready to greet them and to find out what they are thinking about today and to make today wonderful.  I can't wait to find out what they have been dreaming about or what they have planned for today.  I have had my time; I have soaked in the solitude and now I am ready for anything!  Have a wonderful day, sweet friends!

Comments

  1. HelenDecember 20, 2015 at 2:45 PM

    Did I write this post? Except for the fact that I don't drink coffee... this could have been written by me!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Practice What I Preach

I am a lover of words and language.  I believe with my whole heart the power words have to heal and to connect.  I have prayed about this, wept about this, and tried to make peace with this.  I have brave students, who have written powerfully, who have used their words to help heal and connect through their true pain.  I have been a coward. September is National Suicide Prevention Month.  I’m still afraid.  I don’t want to be a person who preaches but doesn’t practice.  So, I am writing.  I am writing as real and as true as I can.  There will be grammatical errors and there will be things I leave out that will be important, but I know I need to write and I need to tell my story because I want the world to be a place where no one else is afraid. I am a teacher. I am just a regular teacher who loves her kids.  I have the privilege of teaching Language and Composition.  I am unafraid, in my classroom, to approach difficult subjects because I know I am doing this to help kids think.
Read more

Present: Being Here

Welcome 2016!  For the past two years, I have selected a word to focus on.  I saw a guy talking about it on the Today show, and I was hooked on the idea.  The first year, 2014, was the year my son graduated from high school.  I picked the word "cherish" and I did my best to focus on enjoying the process.  Last year, I picked the word "embrace" because I knew it would be a year of a lot of change. This year, my word found me.  In the last month of the year, I had several things happen that drew this word to me. First of all, I have lost touch with many of my writing friends.  Every time they planned something, I couldn't make it.  I was too busy or it seemed too far away.  Then, one of the most important people I associated with the Writing Project passed away.  He was always planning ways to keep us together as a group.  I felt horrible I hadn't been to any gatherings.  However, at the busiest time of the year, I found a way to make to a writing session.  
Read more

We need to talk…

‘We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?'” (Bradbury 50) Here’s my hot take: posting about going out to buy the books that are being banned is grossly oversimplifying a truly terrible issue. Don’t get me wrong, you should read Maus and Thirteen Reasons Why and The Hate U Give. Read whatever you want, but the current movement to ban books from public schools and libraries has nothing to do with the texts themselves. The ludicrous notion that the brilliant, heartbreaking, and challenging graphic novel Maus was banned for a couple of curse words and a tiny piece of nudity reveals much about our current culture. I know, Tennessee school board, it would be difficult to defend not wanting our children to grapple with the horrors of the holocaust (heck, that might even get you canceled), but protecting them from “nudity” - that’s something “everyone” can supp
Read more