Morning Ritual

I love sleeping – the deliciousness of lingering in bed, rolling over for more dreams. But I have come to cherish the stillness and emerging light of early morning and now try to rise before the sun, unfolding out of slumber as the first birds begin to sing. I pad downstairs, make a cup of tea and sit in front of open computer and, now that it is warm enough, the open window. From here I can see the birds, or this morning an upside-down squirrel raiding the feeders.  Sometimes it is really the compulsion to write that has me leave my dreams and the heat of my man, but many mornings, it is just the dog barking. Like an alarm clock, he erupts at 5:30 AM — half an hour after my alarm of bird chirps as an early rising neighbor walks by with her dogs.  Tetley yells his greeting – or perhaps, his threat to stay off his turf. In any case, his barks bounce off the bedroom walls — impossible to sleep through — so up I get, shooing him out the door before me.  This is my window for writing, thinking or simply sitting. Time and space before the requirements of the day begin.