Standing by the door
Last sips of coffee, comfort
My resolve kicks in

Sometimes the bravest person in the world is the one who sets down their coffee cup, gets into their car and backs out of the driveway.

In his Gospel, Matthew writes:

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:34 (NIV)

I was going to write that the troubles of my day cannot measure up to the guy trying to cross the border in Texas.

But who can say?

Each day has trouble of its own SPECIFIC to me.

Only I can know the height and depth of how these troubles affect myself.

I shouldn’t discount what I am going through even if I think my trouble’s don’t ‘measure up’.

Don’t discount ever, the trouble in each day.

10 more bed minutes
or 10 more coffee minutes
cruel, too early, choice

Wake and stare at the clock and realize you have 10 minutes before the alarm goes off.

Head doesn’t hurt yet and stomach is behaving itself and you can luxuriate, in every sense of the word, in a half-wakeful, warm drowsiness for those 10 minutes.

Or, you can get up 10 minutes early.

Head doesn’t hurt yet and stomach is behaving itself and you can luxuriate, in every sense of the word, in the unhurried sipping of a second cup of coffee as alertness and awareness slowly rise through your brain and body while you become awake.

On the one hand, if this is the hardest decision to make this morning, I live in a pampered world of privilege and affluence, and I know and appreciate it.

On the other hand, it is a cruel choice to have to make this early in the morning.

go forward smiling
grandchildren’s art on the fridge
kickstart your wakeup

Azaria overheard Grammy saying she needed a semi-formal dress for a June Wedding in Memphis and designed this dress for her. I was then added for balance. A small self portrait completed the work.

I remember walking through the National Gallery in Washington, DC and spotting
Renoir’s Girl with a Watering Can through a doorway and I tripped.

Seeing this work of art on the Fridge each morning has the same type of impact. Forced by means beyond my ken to stop and look and smile and feel better of the day that I am starting.

I recommend it as therapy or as a mood changing prescription for all.

PS – the Easter photos of Jaxon and Essence and family don’t hurt either.

Alarm? No alarm.
Wait! NO ALARM? What? Wait! NUTS!
Shower, Coffee, Go!

Why does the moment you realize you overslept have to be preceded by that wonderful dreamlike state of bliss that all is well with the world.

I feel like my mind and body was reveling in stolen moments under the covers while a nagging feeling that I was missing something was swimming in my brain just below the conscious water level of awareness.

Its a moment that is often recreated in television shows so it might be common to everyone.

I lay in bed, half awake, and I rolled over to look at the clock and thought that 5:40AM was the most perfect time ever. I rolled back and had time to adjust the covers before it hit me.

Got Jackie and Ellie going, downstairs to start the coffee, upstairs and into the shower, back downstairs for coffee, toast, Bible, news (Pistons make playoffs), make lunch, dress and out the door by 6:10AM.

Waiting to turn left onto I85 and the fun that is driving in Atlanta, I could, for just a second, return to that moment before I looked at the clock.

That moment before I realized I overslept and I was in that wonderful dreamlike state of bliss that all was well with the world.