Mornings at Dawn

If we weren't morning people we'd miss out on so much that's worth getting up for! Like this, for example:

Since our usual time for getting up is between 5 and 6 am, we're usually going strong by the time dawn arrives, which as far as I'm concerned is probably the most spectacular part of the whole day. It's definitely worth being around for because like it's counterpart, dusk, it is a quiet, gentle time. A time for noticing things we might otherwise miss - things that make our world such a beautiful place in which to wander around.


The Abbott of New Melleray Abbey once told me that monastic tradition has always considered dawn and dusk to be the great hinges of the day. Dawn swings open the doors to the daylight and dusk closes them again as darkness falls.

In the early morning hours one of our favorite things to do on a morning like this one is to hop in the car and head out into the country to watch the night-time turn into the day.


And now that it is September, a drive along misty country roads at dawn is a chance to roll down the windows and breathe the crisp tang of late summer grasses and listen to the drone of insects rasping their melancholy early autumn songs.


On a mist shrouded morning as the sun rises above the horizon, it almost seems as if we've wandered far away and have ended up in an enchanted kingdom miles and miles from home. But it's just southern Dane County, Wisconsin and we are only about 20 miles from where we started when we left our driveway. But no matter how many times we travel these same back country roads, it always seems like there's something new that catches our eye and makes us pull over to the side and stop for a while.


In this case, it's the unmistakable evidence that summer has gone and spent itself and is getting ready to be transformed into that familiar tapestry filled with the colors we always associate with autumn.


Once the sun has burned away the early morning mist and lit up the fields and pastures of the rural landscape, we head for home ready to begin the day, telling ourselves - as we have hundreds of times already - why it is that we love living in Wisconsin and why it is that we love waking up early.



Why I Wake Early

Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who made 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.

            ~ Mary Oliver
           Why I Wake Early: New Poems