Why I Wake Early

This is the juicy time of day. Early morning.

Even in this transition-place between "Commencement" and commencing, between "Ordination" and serving as one ordained, between potential and actuality, I rise early.  It's not just because the cat leaps on my belly ("ooomph!"), or because the dogs in the upstairs apartment clomp around the hardwood floor, or because over-hydrating all day means I have to pee.  I'm not sure, exactly, why I rise early. But I do.

But when I do, I am rewarded with delicious silence, to sit with God. Pray. Read. Breath in, breath out. 

I think Mary Oliver has it sorted out....

Why I Wake Early

Hello, sun in my face
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and the crotchety--

best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light--
good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.

Why do you wake early?