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 ~

Good morning, quiet. The day is ripe with possibility, with unopened moments, and I want to wrestle with each of them, demanding to be blessed. The restlessness fills you like a worry, like a gnawing in your marrow. Will a journey ease it? I sink into each of these moments, each of these long-necked moments and let them embrace me, even as I want to run, run away.