Music As Your Morning Muse

I like to put on a CD (yes, I still use them) in the morning while I'm having breakfast and coffee. It is, surprisingly, a difficult habit to get into, for one so pleasant. I mean, what better way to wake up than with something that makes your heart smile?

This morning's selection is The Indigo Girls, which harks back to my college days. Sometimes I listen to Bach, sometimes Billy Joel, sometimes Paul Simon - there's quite a long list. But I always choose something easy on my not-quite-awake ears that will also help set a positive tone for my day. Somehow, I always seem to take what I need from whatever I'm listening to.

This morning's theme seems to be "seize the day." Life is too short to live halfway or give less than your best and most sincere self.

So I'm "Not content to bow and bend to the whims of culture, that swoop like vultures," and I'm reminded that "Nobody gets a lifetime rehearsal, as specks of dust, we're universal."

Today is the day.

Make it a great one.

Slow Mornings

Alarm buzzing. Snooze. Groan. Snooze some more. Quick shower, iron the clothes, juggle kids if you have them. Scarf down your cold breakfast, or skip it altogether. Pay $4 for a grande latte or trans-fat-death-bomb biscuit from a drive-through on your way to work.

No wonder we don't want to wake up in the morning!

My mornings used to be something like that. I'd get up at the latest possible moment that would allow me to get to work on time. Now they're something like this:

Wake up naturally, just before sunrise. Get myself presentable at a relaxed pace. Hear the comforting burble and enticing aroma from my programmed coffee maker. Take the dog outside, and take a moment to breathe the fresh morning air, feel the world waking up. Enjoy the contrast between my hot coffee and the cool morning air. Make a real breakfast, then write this over my second cup of coffee, before I start my work day.

Second Cup is a place for my morning musings and thoughts on a slower, simpler life. A life where time is allowed for savoring the small things. For suburban simplicity, and bowing out of the rat race without bowing out of life.

Enjoy. Make today a great day.