Saturday AM

I must be getting old. I slept in until 8 yet again. While I probably needed the sleep, I nonetheless dislike waking late as the most productive hours of the day have already passed. When I spring out of bed around five (or before) I'm energized sufficiently to lauch full tilt into the day. I can get so much done in those first few early hours and the momentum built then carries me through the day. When I sleep in, as this morning, it takes a while to get going and I am overcome by guilt for being so very pedestrian.

The need/desire to wake early certainly originated back in the days of my youth. It was a habit which began then that has followed me throughout my life. I have many fond memories of waking before the rising of the sun on those carefree days of summer, hopping on my bike and riding down our long driveway to get the morning paper or gathering assorted fishing gear and biking off down the old farm path behind the house to spend a few hours watching a bright red cork bobbing along the shore of the lake, hoping to catch something to make the trip worthwhile. But it really didn't matter if I caught anything. Simply being amidst the quiet grandeur of nature, the chirping of insects, the smell of the wax mytle bushes and the gentle lapping of the water against the cypress knee lined shore as the sun gradually rose over the eastern horizon....this is what mattered.