Early morning has always been my best time for creativity and thinking. The only problem is that sometimes the creativity and thinking wakes me up…and too early! But honestly, it is the best time of day for me. No one is awake, the house has that dreamy glow to it, the smell of coffee is wafting about, I can hear the clock on the mantel ticking… And somehow in the deliciousness of this oasis in my day, I receive creative direction, help for my soul, thoughts to carry with me throughout my day. My written journal has on every page, a continuous line drawing. It’s part of how my brain wakes up…to trace the contours of some part of the room I’m sitting in. It feels like something I need to do: to somehow follow the edges of things that surround me, to let my brain and hand wander around the page, stopping here, stopping there to notice the edges, the curves, the directions. I’m aware that I need this in the rest of my life as well…places where I’m not in accomplish-mode, but just meandering, following the creative line here, there, just being, smelling the coffee, listening to my 7-year old rambling and relishing in her particular way of expressing herself, slowing down to hear the sounds of other parts of my day, exploring a topic or idea just for it’s own sake and not because it is on my to-do list. This is what I’m hoping for today. The terrible thing is that I can even make THAT one of the things on my list, just another item to “accomplish”. It’s good to recognize this tendency in me. Yet it is also good to be purposeful in my fight against constant “productivity”. So, today, in the slowness of the morning, I’ll throttle down, ease into a rhythm that I’ll endeavor to make last for as long as possible.