#216: Waking up with the World

Though I definitely don't wake up at 5:30am, I can feel and hear exactly what my sister joyfully experiences at the break of dawn on a daily basis. Her poetic words walk me through a calm yet lively morning. It's amazing how having the right start to the day can set you up to experience life with a refreshed mind and revived soul. 

I’ve loved becoming a morning person myself over the last couple years. It’s become a time where I’m most conscious of my mindset, my physical body, my feelings, my spirit and my inspirations.

Christina’s writing also reminds me of the importance of cherishing good health for all the ways it allows me to experience this gratifying natural world that stretches vastly outside our windows each day. Thank you for sharing this powerful blog, Christina. 

- Amanda

Waking Up With The World

The Earth is still tucked in beneath a blanket of clouds when my sneaker first meets the pavement. I adjust my armband and look out at the empty sidewalk that rolls down the street ahead of me. 

Just months ago, I used to feel almost proud on the days I’d sleep in. Those extra hours on the weekend would feel like a much-needed catch up from the long week I’d just closed out. 

Now, something else has become more needed. 

I believe that every person across the world is experiencing his/her/their unique journey of COVID-19 and all of the change it has brought with it. But one thing seems to be a similar thread: physical space has found dimension in mental and emotional spaces as well.  

The sun begins to sprinkle its rays through the blinds of my bedroom window at 5:30am. My body naturally turns away, resisting the world’s nudge to wake me. But something inside my soul stirs. 

Outside, the birds are beginning to hop from tree to tree, singing the melodies they reserve for dawn. A golden glow fills my bedroom, and my eyes begin to blink open. 

I open my phone to turn off the alarm clock I’d set the night before, and I wonder briefly why it’s called an “alarm” clock anyway. Mother Earth had a better idea with the birds. So I listen to them as I slip one leg and then the other into a pair of running shorts and pull my hair into a ponytail. 

I step outside and onto familiar sidewalks. The soft blanket of clouds begins to slide to the edge of the earth and reveal blue sky above me. I’ve run this loop a thousand times, but I find myself admiring how little – if any at all – conscious thought it takes for one foot to catch the other as gravity pulls me down hill. My body takes care of me in so many ways, in so many steps, in so many breaths and I rarely take the time to truly appreciate that.

I slow my pace at the park around the corner from home. Rays of sun beam in at an angle, turning the leaves of trees into kaleidoscopes. I wipe beads of sweat from my forehead and exhale hot air. I realize I have never been this grateful for my lungs’ ability to breathe… just breathe, something they do for me every moment of every day… allowing me to laugh. To love. Learn. Live this human experience… 

Back at home, a shower, emails, cooking, calls, family, etc. etc. await me in the remaining hours of my day. I thank the world for waking me up with it. I got in some much-needed awakeness in those extra hours.