Story Weekend Theme: Morning
I’m a night owl and have been ever since I was a kid. I loved to go to bed as a child, but not to sleep. I would snuggle under my covers and make up stories for hours. In the morning, I’d wake up exhausted. I kept a bunch of pillows by my bed and would put them behind my back, one at a time, until I was finally in a sitting position and my head had cleared. It made getting up easier for me. Now I’m a grown up and when I open my eyes in the morning, I’m filled with delight that I’ve been given another day. That helps me ignore my grogginess as I get up. I’ve substituted gratitude for my stack of pillows. I don’t want to waste a precious second of the rest of my life.
How about you? What personal story does the word “morning” conjure up for you?
If you’re new to Story Weekend, here’s how it works: I pick a theme and you share something from your life that relates to that theme, however you interpret it. Thanks to all of you who’ve been contributing. As always, there are a few “rules”:
▪ The story must be true
▪ Try to keep it under 100 words. Embrace the challenge! That’s about six or seven lines in the comment form. I want others to read your story, and most people tend to skip if it’s too long. I know how tough it is to “write tight” but I hope you’ll accept this as a challenge.
▪ Avoid offensive language.
Have a good weekend, everyone!
I just want to say Diane, that my daughter is exactly like you were as a child. I can only hope that when she grows up she uses her imagination as well as you do.
Oh dear. She’s not getting much sleep, but maybe she has a book or two in her…
I am basically a night owl. When I was a little girl, my friends had to go to bed by 8, but I was allowed to stay up until 9! Getting up in the morning was never fun for me, though. I can remember at some point when I was in high school that I would take a bath at night and put my “face” on and lie down on my back in the bed and try not to turn over during the night so I would be that much closer to getting ready the next morning. What was I thinking????? LOL! I used to think it was a luxury to sleep late. Now, like you, Diane, I feel that if I laze around in the bed that I am wasting precious time. In my case, I guess it is knowing that your 66th birthday is coming up in a few days and every day is something to be grateful for so I get up, shower off the night, and
take each day as it comes. And, thank you God, life is good!
On working days, I get up at 6 – gets easier as summertime approaches. On weekends, habit kicks in. I’m still awake at 6, but it gives me a wonderful few hours with my current book….
I’ve always been a night owl. My parents gave up and, while they sent me to bed, they secretly tolerated my sitting in the hall and peeking from behind the curtain to watch the Yankee games with my father. For years I’ve had jobs that required my rising around 5AM. Now I’m done with that. I’m in so much better humor when I awake at 10AM instead of 5, so I schedule my life around my natural sleeping schedule. Life is way too short to wrestle with a thing like sleep.
My mornings! Well, I’m definitely not a morning person nor a night owl. I look for the earliest opportunity to go up to bed, snuggle down in the covers with my husband and a good book. When morning comes it always makes me sad! Getting out of my warm covers, everyday life must begin and dreamland forgotten until the next night. Xx
I hate waking up in the morning, I am also a sleep person, I like sleeping, sleeping in and staying in bed reading. The worst thing that could ever happen to me was to have to stay awake OR wake up in the middle of the night. Well can you guess what happened? I have two night owls for kids, who wake up every morning at 7(including weekends) never nap at noon ever since they were 18 months old and never sleep before 10p.m. My oldest was also a light sleeper who woke up 5-7 times every night for three YEARS, her first 7 months are still blury in my mind, they are just a parade of sleepiness, trying to stay awake while feeding a screeming baby. Over the last 7 years I am lucky to have a 9-5 job which at least allows me to get some decent sleep at night. Still my best days are Saturday AND Sunday when I can sleep till 10 am AND nap at noon if I feel like it.
When I was a working lady I hated mornings. I’ve always woken up early, but the longer I could stay in bed the better, just putting off that horrible hour when I had to leave for the office (6 am to miss the traffic!). Now I am older and retired I love waking up early. In summer I love to get up, make a cup of coffee and sit outside and listen to the dawn chorus, with a book on my lap. In winter I get up, make a cup of coffee, and crawl back into my warm cocoon with a book. I cannot conceive getting up and showering without at least an hour of reading – the day just doesn’t feel right unless I have been lost in a little fantasy world for a while.
Mornings have developed and changed throughout the years of my life. My most favorite mornings were spent at my parent’s lake cabin. Rising before my children, holding my breath so as not to wake them. enjoying a cup of coffee before dawn with my Dad. He would name the birds as they began their morning songs; Whippoorwill, Wood Pecker, Bob White, and the Owl saying goodnight. As the dark sky began to lighten, I would head down the hill to the rocks. The sun rising behind me as I look across the lake. Sometimes Dad would come with me and we would bait our hooks and cast our rods. We would usually sit in silence as we waited for the fish to bite. There we would sit until my children would wake up and walk down to join us. This is when the peaceful morning turned into much chaos. Time to walk back up the hill and find my mother on the porch drinking coffee with her long hair down. I miss you Dad.
Mornings have always meant the return of light to my soul. The years of darkness seeking shelter on a couch with no springs. No jump off point towards tomorrow. The lingering of the soul before the light dawned so I could face another day. Courage, strength, hope. The letting go of all that I knew and the leap of faith of all that I could become. Morning has broken, like the first morning and I am reborn. There is a crack, a crack, in everything. That’s how the light gets in.
Beautiful, Sheree…absolutely beautiful.
Agree.
So do I.
I wake to the sound of silence, the moon showing the only sign’s of light. As night becomes morning I’m glorious and thrilled to witness the colors of sunrise…reds and oranges, mauves and blues. Grateful to have another day of life to share with loved ones and friends. I use my time wisely to make sure I accomplish all thats important to me. I speak to all my family and friends and make sure they know they are loved. I paint and draw to leave something of myself behind. As day becomes evening I read and do things for ‘self’ before retiring and saying my favorite yoga terms; Namaste and Om Shanti.
Wow, you all have shared some beautiful morning stories!
My favorite mornings are down the shore! I love to watch the sun rising on the horizon while listening to the rhythm of the surf and an occasional gull squawking in the distance. My husband and I enjoy quiet early morning bike rides on the path along the Delaware, too, before the rest of the world awakens:) Shhh!
It takes me forever to fall asleep I always have so much on my mind. but I’m a morning person. I remember this one time I was in the hospital for hours. I went to bed at 2am because of it and I was up the next day at 7am. I couldn’t sleep. I get up early for school all the time so its not a big deal. I don’t like getting up at 5 or 6am. but 7am thats fine or later. I like sleeping in when i can but if i have to im an early riser. I can stay up late and still wake early in the morning.