Hearth to Heart: Fall Mornings

Cool night air, lingering now at dawn, drifts through the open windows of the house. We want to huddle under covers and stay in our warm beds, but not today – a school day. The short summer spent with kids off schedule, meals eaten at odd times, and the feeling that there’s plenty of time and there’s always tomorrow, dwindles as August speeds by. Now, it’s time again for our morning struggle.
I usually meet the day without too much delay; but everyone else in my house has trouble getting up, forcing me to tussle with the morning along with them. Could I have trained them differently?
Alarms sound repeatedly, snoozes punched several times, creating the false hope of staying in bed. The cat cries and climbs his front legs up my thighs demanding attention, hoping I’ll afford him his first of many trips outside (like the bear who went over the mountain, he wants to see what he can see). I linger too long over a cup of coffee, stealing an extra moment of peace before I try, again, to motivate the rest of the house.
The getting-ready time always runs short and our best laid plans of the night before sometimes get lost in the shuffle, but the hopeful feeling of the new day always rises with the sun. It’s another chance to do our best, to try to do better than the day before, and to remember we are blessed and count the reasons why.
*To set the scene, hear Neil Diamond singing his line “September mornings always make me feel this way” and a piano sounding the last measures of the song.