Just
Before Dawn
“The
time just before dawn contains the most energy of all hours of the
day. It has helped me become an early doer...When I wake to see that
it's light out already, I feel the world has started without me.”
Terri
Guillemets
As you know if you read
my blog regularly, I am a morning person. This is not by choice, but
by circadian circuitry. I recently heard a Science Friday interview
with a sleep specialist who said our natural rhythms of waking and
sleeping are a function of age and genetics. Young children and
adolescents need long hours of sleep but at different stages of the
night. Young children need to go to sleep early and rise early, while
adolescents need to fall asleep later and rise later. Adults may be
“night owls” or “larks” according to genetics, and older
people rarely sleep more than six hours. (that part I knew first
hand) Apparently the idea that one can catch up on missed sleep is
not valid—weekend binge sleeping does not make up for lost sleep
during the week. All that said, I do love these early morning hours,
especially rising just before dawn in time to watch the sun come up. In
these moments, deep silence prevails, penetrated only by the thrum of
insects and beginning chords of bird song.
The energy of early
morning, at least for me, is different from all other hours of the
day. It is liminal time, when the veils between the worlds are thin,
and penetrable. It is a wonderful time for inspired meditation,
because calm prevails and the silence contains fewer distractions.
Excellent time for prayer, or for simply sitting with quiet mind. In
today's world, especially in the cities, silence is hard to come by.
We don't realize how much noise we're exposed to everyday and the
toll it takes on our nervous systems. At this moment, 6:10 a.m., the
sun is almost up, an airplane has just taken off from the nearby
airport and flown directly overhead, and trains are passing one another about
eight blocks away, whistles blaring and tracks clacking. In other
words, it's already loud here. So those precious hours of quiet every
morning are deeply appreciated.
According to Benjamin
Franklin, “Early morning has gold in its mouth.” Gold in
sunrise, and gold in the pocket from getting a jump start on the day.
He was the one, remember, who mouthed that proverb, “Early to
bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” I
can't vouch for that, but I can say for sure that the sunrise has
gold, and mauve, and lavender and gray and bright, bright white in
its smile. It is a beautiful time of day. Just ask these mockingbirds
singing their hearts out in the oak tree.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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