Good morning

Posted on by Katharine Asals

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.
candles, journalIdeally 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.
smudgeThis 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.
sun in artichoke stalks 2And 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.glass of waterBut 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 groundCOFFEE…..
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 –
kitty sniffsWe 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!)

Published by Katharine Asals

Katharine is a single mom who likes taking pictures and painting and writing sometimes and believes swimming is the one true religion.

30 thoughts on “Good morning”

    1. 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!

        1. 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.

  5. 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.

    1. 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.

  13. 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. 🙂

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