Embracing the Morning

Summer Morning Mood

Making a Conscious Choice

to Sit in Reverie

"Morning Mood" by Edvard Grieg captures the delightful sentiment of my morning meditations while I sat outside and wrote earlier today. I recommend you listen to enhance your own morning mood while you read.

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It’s still cool enough to sit outside this morning before the heat of the day moves in and touches everything with scorching fingers. No rain has fallen in over a week and my world is parched. The slight breeze on my bare shoulders and neck belies the high temperatures moving this way as the day progresses. Even my warm coffee doesn’t increase my body’s heat as I savor the cooling air.

The lizard on the Pandora vine scampered out of sight as I approached my chair. Other creatures that inhabit my patio are hidden or sleeping. Not so the birds that I hear chirping and calling in the distance as they greet the day in search of food, companionship, conversation.

A frog just leapt from the outside wall of the house to the crinum lily flower. Perched on the sepals draped from the top of the stalk, it sips the last drops of dew before the sun, risen and warming the Earth, evaporates any liquid bubbles on the plant’s surface.

Perhaps the woodpeckers have found another source of breakfast bugs, one farther away from my tiny plot of land, because they are silent this day.

Fritillary butterflies sip the nectar from the just-opening aloe flower. Tortoiseshell-hued dragonfly wings shimmer in the sun as the graceful creatures flit across the thirsty herb garden.

Hot pink morning glories open their faces to the day. The night-blooming jasmine has closed its petals in anticipation of daily rest.

Drops of moisture hover at the tips and edges of the caladium leaves.

I turn my face to the north, and my right cheek is warmed as it is exposed to the rising sun. I note the heat that now hovers on my arm and the back of my neck. Content, in a nature-inspired reverie, I desire nothing more than to stay seated in my weathered wicker rocking chair, pen in hand and coffee nearby. I know this is but a short respite from the business of living this day. I glance at the door, but rather than get up and move inside, instead I put down my pen, close my eyes, gently rock, and savor these early morning gifts.