You have a way with words! This is really something else. You put words to feelings that are familiar and yet when i try to say them back i cant find them. Your words will have to do. Thank you for this!
So beautifully said! My husband often rises before dawn to read before his work day begins. God did not make me a morning person, but I am often up late, especially when writing. I find a similar quiet when the household is bedded down and I am in my office with the dog asleep as my feet.
The day is so full that it is lovely just be BE in the quiet, whenever it happens.
I love this. I too often become wide awake in the night. Recently I started keeping a rosary under my pillow; I often pray it to help me get to sleep in the right frame of mind, and if I wake during the night it's the first thing I reach for. I've never yet managed to complete a whole rosary in the night! But funnily enough, my post today (if I finish it!) In St Benedict's Rule is about the night office, and praying in the small hours. Coincidence...
I too turn my mind to prayer when my busy brain teams up with my insomnia in the wee dark watches of the night. (Usually St Patrick’s breastplate) I rarely make it to the end of the Lord’s Prayer without interruption, but as they’re both so deeply embedded, whatever the mental equivalent is of muscle memory eventually steps in and calms my ND brain.
Yes, I can have that problem, turning things over and over in my mind. Prayer has banished that particular gremlin for me. In fact I now pray the rosary several times each day which I find very calming and helps me to focus.
That you’ve found something that works so well is wonderful. That you’ve also managed to successfully incorporate it into your daily practice is doubly so.
I need to work on remembering to actually DO the things that seem to help...but we’re all a work in progress aren’t we?
As do we all, it’s a fundamental part of the journey isn’t it? I’ve often lamented that i wish life’s lessons could come in brighter, easier guises, but that’s unfortunately not the way it works is it?! 🤔😏 Onwards! 🥰
What a beautiful way of describing these early hours. I hate to say they are my favorite hours because then it sounds like I don’t like being with others, but for me waking in the dark for time with my thoughts or for asking God the big questions is one of the most beneficial habits I’ve cultivated. My creative spirit very much needs this silent, alone time at the end of which comes sunrise ! Such beautiful writing here 🩵
There's a closeness to winter and to the early morning, the anticipation of the opportunity of daytime/summer. Love the tiny seasons motif. Really am appreciating your style/tone!
I think most of us have similar experiences in that early wakefulness that kind of envelopes us in our own kind of spiritual comfort zone. But then we forget. Thank you for sharing this experience that brings me back to my own!
Like you, I've been waking extra early a LOT recently. Except my normal wake-up time is 5, so my unexpected wake-up is 3 or sometimes even 2. Getting intentional about embracing these moments of "insomnia" the way you are is a great idea. Naming them for their corresponding prayer hours is even better. Thanks for this.
Sally, this is so beautiful. As an ahem, Nana-age person, I can assure you that early morning wakefulness is the norm rather than exception. You've framed the time appropriately--a listening, the 'womb of the day' (I love that!) Matins is from the French word for "morning", which you probably know and anytime after midnight is morning, eh?
I've been rising with the Psalter from the Book of Common Prayer when I can and leaving more space to listen to my days. I am wont to fill them with being and doing. More sitting is needful.
I have a similar feeling about twilight. Especially at this time of the year. The quality of light here (in the middle of the UK) in that pause on the edge between the light and dark, the day and the night, well it can be...extraordinary. Impossible to capture (I alas have no Scully available to try to attempt it) or really adequately explain it. My cynical side suspects that air pollution is probably a significant part of it (it’s particularly bad not far from here due to stuff going on at the Docks. Sigh) because it reminds me of the twilights when I lived in NC (near Hickory) and a local told me the amazing sunsets were because of the air pollution from the furniture industry.
...no idea what point i set out to make here! Apart from - this resonated with me. And made me ponder the need to figure out how to add a ritual to my day around the gently shifting moments of twilight. Thank you .
“God always finds us there, as if to prove that He can find us anywhere. There is no hour, no season too dark, too vast, too mysterious, too empty, too lonely, too needy, too cold for Him to seek and surround and hold us.” Wonderful and true reminder of God’s reckless love for us! As Brennan Manning put it, “Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self.” Thanks, SE!
You have a way with words! This is really something else. You put words to feelings that are familiar and yet when i try to say them back i cant find them. Your words will have to do. Thank you for this!
So beautifully said! My husband often rises before dawn to read before his work day begins. God did not make me a morning person, but I am often up late, especially when writing. I find a similar quiet when the household is bedded down and I am in my office with the dog asleep as my feet.
The day is so full that it is lovely just be BE in the quiet, whenever it happens.
I love this. I too often become wide awake in the night. Recently I started keeping a rosary under my pillow; I often pray it to help me get to sleep in the right frame of mind, and if I wake during the night it's the first thing I reach for. I've never yet managed to complete a whole rosary in the night! But funnily enough, my post today (if I finish it!) In St Benedict's Rule is about the night office, and praying in the small hours. Coincidence...
I too turn my mind to prayer when my busy brain teams up with my insomnia in the wee dark watches of the night. (Usually St Patrick’s breastplate) I rarely make it to the end of the Lord’s Prayer without interruption, but as they’re both so deeply embedded, whatever the mental equivalent is of muscle memory eventually steps in and calms my ND brain.
Yes, I can have that problem, turning things over and over in my mind. Prayer has banished that particular gremlin for me. In fact I now pray the rosary several times each day which I find very calming and helps me to focus.
That you’ve found something that works so well is wonderful. That you’ve also managed to successfully incorporate it into your daily practice is doubly so.
I need to work on remembering to actually DO the things that seem to help...but we’re all a work in progress aren’t we?
We are and I mess up regularly!
As do we all, it’s a fundamental part of the journey isn’t it? I’ve often lamented that i wish life’s lessons could come in brighter, easier guises, but that’s unfortunately not the way it works is it?! 🤔😏 Onwards! 🥰
What a beautiful way of describing these early hours. I hate to say they are my favorite hours because then it sounds like I don’t like being with others, but for me waking in the dark for time with my thoughts or for asking God the big questions is one of the most beneficial habits I’ve cultivated. My creative spirit very much needs this silent, alone time at the end of which comes sunrise ! Such beautiful writing here 🩵
That is nice, to see a winter season in a day.
Oh Sally, I love thinking of days as containing their own seasons!
So beautiful. I have been experiencing something similar, with rested but quite early wakings. Thank you for putting words to it.
There's a closeness to winter and to the early morning, the anticipation of the opportunity of daytime/summer. Love the tiny seasons motif. Really am appreciating your style/tone!
Beautiful. Perhaps next time I awake at 5 I will be able to look at it in a different light.
I think most of us have similar experiences in that early wakefulness that kind of envelopes us in our own kind of spiritual comfort zone. But then we forget. Thank you for sharing this experience that brings me back to my own!
I like the idea of "tiny seasons" in the day.
Like you, I've been waking extra early a LOT recently. Except my normal wake-up time is 5, so my unexpected wake-up is 3 or sometimes even 2. Getting intentional about embracing these moments of "insomnia" the way you are is a great idea. Naming them for their corresponding prayer hours is even better. Thanks for this.
Sally, this is so beautiful. As an ahem, Nana-age person, I can assure you that early morning wakefulness is the norm rather than exception. You've framed the time appropriately--a listening, the 'womb of the day' (I love that!) Matins is from the French word for "morning", which you probably know and anytime after midnight is morning, eh?
I've been rising with the Psalter from the Book of Common Prayer when I can and leaving more space to listen to my days. I am wont to fill them with being and doing. More sitting is needful.
I have a similar feeling about twilight. Especially at this time of the year. The quality of light here (in the middle of the UK) in that pause on the edge between the light and dark, the day and the night, well it can be...extraordinary. Impossible to capture (I alas have no Scully available to try to attempt it) or really adequately explain it. My cynical side suspects that air pollution is probably a significant part of it (it’s particularly bad not far from here due to stuff going on at the Docks. Sigh) because it reminds me of the twilights when I lived in NC (near Hickory) and a local told me the amazing sunsets were because of the air pollution from the furniture industry.
...no idea what point i set out to make here! Apart from - this resonated with me. And made me ponder the need to figure out how to add a ritual to my day around the gently shifting moments of twilight. Thank you .
Beautiful as always, contemplative and peaceful.
“God always finds us there, as if to prove that He can find us anywhere. There is no hour, no season too dark, too vast, too mysterious, too empty, too lonely, too needy, too cold for Him to seek and surround and hold us.” Wonderful and true reminder of God’s reckless love for us! As Brennan Manning put it, “Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self.” Thanks, SE!