Waiting for the Dawn
I am a morning person. I make no apologies to all you night owls who have little appreciation for those of us who look forward getting up at the crack of dawn, with a smile on our face and a bounce in our step. The morning has always given me a feeling of a new start, no matter what kind of hassles I had to deal with the day before. I have found that this has always been the time of day that I am at my best and most clear of thought. My wife on the other hand has always been a night owl and feels that the alarm clock was invented by the devil himself.
In fact, breakfast is also my most favorite meal of the day. It feels nice to pig out on eggs, sausage, pancakes, donuts, and my personal favorite (being the German that I am) – goetta. Don’t ask what it is or what the ingredients are, or you’ll probably never want to try it. However, I love the fact that I can pig out then feel like I have the rest of the day to burn it all off. I know it’s kind of hopeful thinking, but it helps me clear my conscience; sort of like people who think drinking diet pop is actually beneficial to them.
However, since having kids, I have been greatly challenged in my love of mornings and now find myself being more like my wife. After working all day and then playing with the kids when I get home, I find that my evenings are vital for connecting with my wife, doing projects that I couldn’t get to, cleaning up the remainder of the house that the kids didn’t get to (usually 50% of the house), and doing things that I consider selfish pleasures: like watching a guy flick and eating a whole bowl of popcorn without little fingers reaching in (I figure popcorn is mostly air, so it fits with my hopeful thinking above). It has also been hard getting used to broken sleep which is the result of little creatures coming to me at night to tell me about the nightmare they had, or how someone forgot to put a diaper on them and their bed is now a pool.
Now the dilemma in all of this is that I’m staying up later to do all these things and not getting to bed until……oh, midnight let say (if I’m lucky)…..and so it has made my enjoyment of mornings slowly deteriorate. I’m finding that I have started a pattern of hitting the snooze button at least four times every morning and hoping that it’s actually Saturday and I mistakenly set the alarm. I have also discovered the legal morning pep drug called “coffee”. I have slowly lost that smile that I used to have each morning and the pep in my step is now a drag in my swag. I find myself longing for the day that I can wake with energy in the morning once again and watch the sun rise.
However, I have to also remind myself that when that day comes, life will be so much different than it is now. My Dad used to say, “don’t wish time away because you’ll wake up one day as an old man, your kids all grown and your lovely wife will be gone”; he was speaking from experience. What he was saying to me was: enjoy what you have while you have it and don’t get lost in where the grass may be greener; you’ll miss what’s most important today. So now I try to push past my discomfort in the morning to appreciate the dawning of another day with my lovely wife and beautiful children, and enjoy every moment of watching my son rise!