Listen to the noises. Can you hear it? The locusts are singing this morning while I am listening to them loudly in trees. The squirrel spotted me in the hammock swing and dashed quickly off the deck railing and the wind is blowing, the blinds are swinging as the wind blows because the storm is going to be passing through this afternoon from a storm.
The dew is sitting on my keyboard as I move it from the coolness inside to the outdoor humidity and the clouds are covering the sky with a boldness and filled with the rain that will pour out of them later today. This vacation I woke up every morning and wanted to go to the ocean to see the sunrise, but I did not want to make it a priority and this will probably be the first vacation that I have not gotten up early to drive to the beach and patiently wait for the sun to rise in Kill Devil Hills.
At 6:11 I was out bed, made my coffee and wanted to come out and sit on the hammock swing and spend time praying and thinking how my vacation week has been. This year, I wanted a Sunday through Sunday week instead of a midweek vacation that we usually take. It was the perfect measure of time that I needed to give myself a change of fast pace to refueling my body for the dash down of the months forging ahead.
Oh listen again, in less than 5 minutes the singing locust are silent, the sunrise shadowed hues of oranges through the neighboring trees, the hawks are cawing and flying overhead and the sky is brightening up with a new shades of colors painting through the clouds. Pinks, blues and white with a mixture of gray is the hues of my morning.
My eyes are seeing more brightness and the colors are stunning as the clarity of the day is coming forth when the sun will brighten up the day and the winds will remind us that a storm is nearby. But in light of what surrounds me, I am grateful because I was reminded this morning that it is not how much sleep I missing, it is how much life I am enjoying.
The rest of my family is still sleeping and I am in awe that I am awake and seeing life from a different mindset this morning. Usually when I am on vacation, I think about the mornings that I will get to sleep in and lounge around drinking coffee and relaxing. Yet today, while I was making coffee, I realized that I am not living my life to sleep, I am living to wake up. I have another day to make memories even though I will soon be preparing to pack up and head back to my home with different scenery.
Life is not about sleepi
ng, it is about waking up. Over the years, I have become an earlier riser, but not as early as my husband, yet I find myself waking up earlier each day. During the week, I usually give myself an hour to get ready for work and on the weekends, I wake up even earlier. Not sure why, but my body does a shift long before sunrise is here and long before my normal weekday wake up routine.
What are you missing around you in the morning when you are in bed sleeping? Are you labeling yourself with a limiting belief that you need more sleep than time to see life around you? I have been guilty of that too, but today, I have a new mindset. It will no longer be about sleeping, it is will be about living and what is ahead for me today; to see the sunrise around me and to give myself rest as it is intended to be. I would rather live in the light that surrounds me and give my body rest in the darkness that refreshes me to enjoy the day that I will see what is new for me.
Every day may not have something new in it that is exciting, but each day is certainly a gift to enjoy. Wake up and watch the sunrise, even if it is not over the ocean, it is rising exactly where you are at.
Comments