Every Single Morning, I do something first thing before I do anything else.
Before I scrambled for my coffee,
Before I reach for the remote and switch on the morning news,
Before I spend time brushing my teeth in a bid to wake myself up.
It is a weird little thing.
A little secret between my sheets and I.
Every single morning I do it, even before I hold my breath hoping my newborn might actually snooze for a few seconds longer.
I do it before I reach for my phone and scroll aimlessly through social media searching for something that might inspire my day.
It is a little weird and you might not like me anymore after you find out what it is.
Something only my pillow knows about, something I have done since I was a little girl.
You see, I am not what one would call a morning person. I wish I could spring out of bed and take on the day with fierce tenacity but I am the sort of person who needs to be convinced out of bed.
I haven’t needed an alarm for the last three years, because my son has been my human foghorn. Even before he yells loudly ‘Wake up Mum’. I do something each and every morning.
Todays question is this;
What is something you do every morning?
Every morning, as the sun pokes its head through the dawn, I lay in bed surfacing from a dream and I open one eye.
Just one.
Not both.
It is like I am lifting the covers off my sleep and saying hello to the day.
As I lay with one eye open, my mind floods with questions like ‘No, it can’t be morning already can it?’ ‘Can I have one more minute of sleep?’ ‘What happened, is it morning already?’.
Then I close my eye. Maybe closing it helps me hold onto the possibility that my soft embrace of dreams and blankets could last just a little longer.
Then I open my one eye again. I start to listen to the ferry that docks every morning ready for its days passengers and listen to the waves that lap the shore. I try to ignore to the squawking birds that reside in the olive grove next door. It is in this half eyed moment, that I take a deep breath and greet the day.
A one-eyed greeting, that says ‘Although I wish I had another moment, even a nano second of sleep, today is a new day and I will rejoice in its newness.‘
There is something so precious and simple about the morning.
The routine that helps us remember our blessings and to count its potential.
Each and every morning.
Even if you wake a little one-eyed, like me, let’s remember that every new day that dawns has the potential to be better than the last.
When our days are dark and difficult, colour can be found in the dark. If you take the time, even with just one eye to find it.
