I used to hate mornings. But time has shaped me into a morning person. I routinely rise at 5:30, sometimes 5:00, even 4:30 a.m. (Summer's early sunrise helps immensely.)
It's a nice part of the day, and self-limiting. The danger of working late into the night is you can be lulled into working past your limits. Using the wee morning hours guarantees that eventually, everyone else wakes up and you are eased back into the routine of your day.
It's just a few quiet hours before the phone rings and the bustle starts. Before you can even think of making doctor appointments and running errands or returning phone calls.
There have been a lot of people in my life lately. Family members struggling with odd new yearnings and shifting friendships. Old friends going through newly difficult situations. Old acquantances suddenly playing more intimate new roles. New friendships suddenly blossoming under my nose. In some cases, I see it's not even me that's needed, but somehow a connection to be made between two people--and I happen to be the bridge.
I wonder why I'm not more worried about all these demands on my time. I think it's because I sense these are not "needy people", just incredible people going through rough patches who simply need a little more of my time right now. I sense the time is coming where they simply won't need me quite as much. It feels right to give to them right now.
Ironically, my husband is feeling like the balance in his life is shifting in this direction, too. His work has pulled him a little too much off-center. He's yearning to adjust that. While I sense that soon, I'll be able to focus a little bit more on the art again. Our little boat will yaw a bit as we move gingerly from one side to the other.
Because that's what friends and spouses do, adjusting our centers of gravity to changes great and small as we revolve around each other.
