Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom. Aristotle

This morning I did something I haven’t done in a long time. I walked my dog at 6:00 am. It’s a lovely morning, the crabapple trees are in full bloom, tulips and other spring bulbs are blooming. We forget what pleasures we forgo by not bothering. A simple morning walk can brighten our day. Reading some inspiring words can give us something to think about.

Sharing a little time with someone can gladden our heart. I like being up in the morning and seeing everyone off as they go to work. These are small little interactions; they may hardly seem worth the bother. This is our life and if we don’t bother enough, the missing interactions in our lives add up. I have heard the door close mornings I’ve come down late. My daughter was already off to work. With a sigh, I went on with my morning. I missed a little conversation, maybe a laugh and a smile.

We may hardly realize what the people and pets that share our life add to it. It may sometimes seem that the kitchen is always a mess; the shoes are never put away, etc. Living is messy, cooking is messy, and pets are messy. Before our old dog Krypto a Scottish Terrier died at fifteen he had bathroom issues, eye issues, and could hardly walk. He couldn’t go through another hard winter, but the hole he left in our life we feel still.

We have a new dog that has been with us for five years. We love her, she is completely different from him which is what we wanted. We didn’t want to try and replace him with a new him, we knew that would be impossible. They are individuals and we have to appreciate their individuality.

Love and loss are part of life. We enjoy the fleeting moments of joy that come into our life, or we don’t. If we enjoyed them or didn’t enjoy them they are still gone. Was the sunrise spectacular this morning? I don’t know I didn’t look at it. I didn’t see last night’s sunset either. Small little experiences we can have, it costs nothing to enjoy the sunrise and sunset. We are unlikely to encounter such great beauty in the rest of our day.

Be willing to be a beginner every single morning. Meister Eckhart

No one will make us enjoy the sunrise or sunset. That is entirely our own decision. We choose how we see our life, not the circumstances necessarily but our reaction to them. We are as happy as we choose to be. We’ve all met people who seem happier than their circumstances appear to warrant. They aren’t happy because of their circumstances but in spite of them.

My mother often says, “I am as happy as if I’m in my right mind.” Why do some of us embrace a dour, serious response to life and others a happy upbeat response to it? Is this the nature we were born with? Does it make a difference to our lives, or do we have to embrace who we are and how we see the world and our outlook is not better even if we are happier, we have a happy outlook?

I was watching a monk on a podcast last night being interviewed by a former monk. The monk being interviewed seemed not quite real; I hardly know how to express this. It was like he was self consciously trying to project what we think a monk should be. This same interviewer said on a podcast, “We are not what we think we are, we are not what you think we are, we are what we think you think we are.”

The more we try to be what we think someone else thinks we should be the farther we get from being our “authentic” selves. This may be one of the big problems politicians face as they try to be all things, to all people. We can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but we can’t fool all of the people all of the time. This is why our best bet is to be ourselves and let the chips fall where they may. Those who like us will like us, those who respect us will respect us, those who love us will love us, but most of all we can like and respect ourselves.

If there are things in our life we aren’t fitting in but would like to, decisions have to be made. A book that helps us do this is The 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma. He tells us to “Own our morning.” and by doing this we elevate our life.

He tells us to do four things. Get up at 5:00 am, exercise for twenty minutes, write in our journal for twenty minutes, and read or watch something inspirational. By focusing on our own health, well being, and growth we have more to give to others. He tells us it takes 66 days to build this into a habit.

We can’t bring “more” into our life without finding time for it. The idea is the hour between 5:00 and 6:00 can be “our” hour. We have no one expecting anything from us so we can focus on our own growth, dreams, aspirations, health, and luxuriate in having time for ourselves.

If we want to be rich we are told to pay ourselves first. If we want personal growth we need to find that time for ourselves first. There is never money or time left over. If we are going to build our fortune on what is left it won’t be built. If we are going to build our personal growth on time left over there is none of that either.

Are we setting and meeting the goals we want in life?

Every morning we have two choices: continue to sleep and dream or wake up and chase our dreams. The choice is ours… Unknown

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, growth, and love.

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