I’m not a morning person. I can do mornings, and I did do mornings for years and years and years. Having children and working for a living means you have to be a morning person, or at least fake being a morning person. I wake up quickly and I’m happy and wide awake. I can carry on conversations and get things done from the second my eyes open. I know some people, and I’m not naming names but I might be married to one, who need some time to transition from asleep to awake, who don’t want to see or talk to anyone, who just need some time to be alone and wake up. I often wake up with a song in my head and I could easily break out into that song as soon as my eyes open. I could be a morning person, if I wanted to, but I don’t.

They may be urban legends but I’ve heard stories of people who get up and go for walks, or even more unbelievable runs, early in the morning. Some people get up to meditate or read or sew or bake early in the morning. They see the sunrise and they like it! They enjoy dew on the grass and birdsong. I don’t. I’ve walked in dewy grass, heard morning birds and seen sunrises. They are overrated. And you can still walk in dewy grass at 9 am if you find a sheltered corner of the garden, you can hear birdsong while still abed through open windows and sunsets are just as beautiful and inspiring as sunrises. When we had a boat we used to get up early, and I mean early, to go fishing. We would be on the water before sunrise. And guess what? We never caught fish then, seems they prefer 9:00 am starts too.

Now that I’m not working I have a wonderful morning routine. I wake up around 7:00 am, check the clock, dismiss it and go back to sleep until after 8:00. When I wake up the second time, I stretch and enjoy the fact that I don’t have to get up. After a few minutes I get up, put on comfortable clothing and go downstairs. I work slowly through my version of a yoga routine. My knees are so bad now I can’t do many poses but I’ve seen gentle routines where some poses are done sitting or lying down. Then I make a pot of tea, check Facebook, Twitter and the news (what did Trump do now?). An hour or so later I get up off the couch and go back upstairs. I get dressed, do my hair and make-up, make the bed, maybe do some laundry and once I’m back downstairs my day really begins. I get started on whatever is on my agenda for the day – strata business, housework, shopping, baking, script study and so on.

As I live with someone who is still working for a living, as he constantly reminds me, my evenings usually end around 10 or 11. However some nights I just can’t get to sleep. Sometimes I get up and watch  late night TV but most of the time I sit in the dark on the window seat and look outside. Let me just say that the quiet of the night is every bit as wonderful as the quiet of the morning. The summertime night is velvety. We live in an area with a lot of older people. There are always lights on in the buildings around us. I sit and wonder what they are up to. Sometimes ambulances arrive silently, with their lights flashing, nothing to wonder about there. Sometimes there are people out walking little dogs. Sometimes urban coyotes stroll along the pathway. People get off the late night buses and make their way home. It’s quiet and peaceful. After a while I’m relaxed enough to try to sleep again.

In a perfect world, my mornings would remain the same. However, my evenings would stretch longer into the night. Perhaps once my significant other stops working that might happen. But he is an early riser. He likes the quiet of no one around. He’s a “don’t talk to me for the first hour that I’m up” person. Let me tell you, that makes early morning trips to the airport interesting. Once I’m up I want to chat and make pancakes and discuss the news. The only way he can avoid that is to get up before me, which makes him ready for bed at night before me. Sigh… this may be a perpetuating problem.