My morning ritual has gotten more and more elaborate over the years.
It begins hors champ, out of frame, in my bed with scribbles in a dream journal à la Robert Moss – you can’t move too much or the dreams get lost, as if it is the body that holds them, not the mind, so this must be done while still in bed, searching inside the positions of the body for the secrets of the night.
Then journal and pen get dragged groggily downstairs to the kitchen table where writing continues, a kind of morning pages thing à la Julia Cameron, but with candles, I’m not sure why, just for fun.
Ideally this is all happening before first light, cause next up is the Sunrise Ceremony à la Diane Longboat, with a little more fire to make a smudge of dried lavender and sage – it’s supposed to be tobacco, but tobacco is kind of pricey around here and doesn’t burn so easily and I’m not so fond of the smell, and seems like the main idea is prayer and gratitude for the day, giving thanks for being alive and being able to see the sun rise yet again, the smoke rising to wherever prayers are heard.
This is done facing east, of course, though as a Canadian the changing arc of the sun becomes quite evident if you are doing this daily, and right now the sun is a little further south each morning.
If the day is not too wet, and sometimes even when it is, I stand barefoot out in the dewy grass and damp soil of the back yard, out where the morning glories and other plants reside.
And somewhere in this greeting of the sun a glass of water will be consumed, the first drink of the day blessed by the light of the sun, re-hydrating the body after sleep.
But I must confess, each morning is a struggle between the timing of the glass of water with the sunrise, and the feeling that I want, I crave, I shouldn’t, but I just can’t hold off on my one deep intractable addiction, my true love, the one I lie in bed the night before fantasizing about…
COFFEE…..
Oh how I love my coffee, can’t wait for some coffee, am sad each time my allotted 2 cups are done and I’m not allowed anymore.
But I’m not the only one. As I move through my morning routines, often as not sneaking one coffee in before the glass of water, or even before the morning pages and the first lighting of the smudge, I have to be careful not to set my cup down. Someone else here, bizarre little thing that she is, will lick my coffee cup if I’m not looking –
We call her the Italian cat cause she likes coffee and pizza, will steal a piece of pizza from your plate if you’re not careful. As a kitten she was found in the alleyway here in Little Italy – seems it might be genetic…
For a good morning bonus, here’s a nice little article on creativity and morning habits.
(Weekly Photo Challenge – good morning!)
it always knows
Lovely, what an inspiration for how to wake up.
I like it! But it gets longer and longer the more things I add… I didn’t even get to breakfast and exercise, and then at some point one has to get dressed and go to work!
You didn’t need to. Would be hard to upstage the cat 🙂
She’s a beauty!
She is cute, isn’t she? Though I’ll tell you, one of my nicknames for her is Beelzebub – needs no explanation…
Hahaha… one of our cats is called Vuvuzela. That doesn’t need an explanation either 🙂
WHOA. That sounds noisy!
Lush and yummy.
The coffee? Indeed! Sigh…already had my 2 cups today…
The entire post… not just the coffee! Photos, words, it was all lush and yummy.
You know, most mornings I do these things just kind of moving through it, going through the motions, but once in a while, say every 2 weeks, I have a morning where I feel a wave of such bliss… it reminds me of why I do it.
I love that you shared it with your readers… I agree, sometimes I find myself truly “in the moment,” and it always so fantastic, so much more meaningful.
[…] Good morning | follow your nose […]
I couldn’t imagine a morning routine like that.
Workdays – get up at 7, roll into my clothes, write a love note for my wife’s lunch and head in.
Grab a cup of coffee on the way from the subway to my office, and at my desk by 830.
Weekends – wake up as late as possible. Get up when my bladder tells me to.
Go downstairs, grab two cookies and go to lie back in bed. When my wife gets up, we’ll eat the cookies in bed, talk about what we want to do that day, then get up and have breakfast.
Yah, you have to get up pretty early to do all that stuff. And then I’ve got another bunch of stuff I do in the evenings.
I didn’t do these things when I was married.
Your mornings sound lovely – the lunch love note was my favourite detail.
One of my cats like to drink whatever I might be drinking. lol
Oh dear! I can see how that might get a little hilarious…
I try to keep him out of the alcoholic ones! lol
So beautiful and inspiring! Love all of it. Good morning.
Good morning, dear one
[…] Good morning | follow your nose […]
[…] Good morning | follow your nose […]
[…] Good morning | follow your nose […]
[…] Good morning | follow your nose […]
A wonderful read and complimented with some terrific images. Smiled all the way through, a great moment to be in.
Thanks so much, James! Glad you enjoyed.
Greeting the sun and the day with gratitude, morning pages and coffee. That’s my ritual. Barefoot in the grass. yes, absolutely. I wish we were neighbours. 🙂
Why I would happily come visit you and your Med! And you can show me what celadon looks like…
[…] Good morning […]
[…] gardens. The sudden spring is still a shock of disbelief.Each morning I’m on the patio doing sunrise ceremony, grateful for the new day and hot coffee, delighting in the variations in the clouds, watching them […]