No, Not Like Spenser
I woke up and got up at 4:42 this morning, soon after began my morning “rituals” of sitting in meditation, bowing, drinking coffee while reading books that help me out, then heading to the basement and writing my three Morning Pages. The alarm in our bedroom has been set for 5:30 mornings for years, which is when I get up nearly all my days to go do the morning stuff. Maybe once every couple of weeks my wife Susan is insistent that there be no alarm – an insistence that feels misplaced to me as she always falls back asleep, well nearly always – and though I usually still wake up in the 5 – 5:30 time I do rarely sleep-in until 6 – 6:15. I begin those days depressed, knowing I will be forever trying to catch-up the rest of the day. Today, on the other hand, I got a jump on life.
My son Spenser is a busy guy. He attends a pretty cool 9:30 – 3:30 day program three days a week, and works with individual providers two more, mostly 12 – 4. He is more invested in sleep that I am. On the day program days I am in his room by 8am, beginning what is quite often a begging/threatening/making up impending doom shit process until he gets up like 8:30 or so. On the provider days he gets to sleep in, and nearly always I’m up there again, waking him up sometime after 10:30, when I remember. On occasion he keeps the noon-time person waiting. Then there are the weekends in which Spenser is allowed to sleep-in without a mean old dad barging in to haul him out of dreamland, and most Saturdays and Sundays find him still under the covers, knocked out, after 1pm. Sometimes it’s 2.
This is incomprehensible to me. First, I don’t know how it’s physically possible to sleep that late. Even if he is up on his phone or watching a movie til, say 12:30 – 1am. How is it possible? But, far beyond the physiological question is the existential. The days, as Warren Zevon sang so sweetly, “slide by”, and they ain’t coming back. Neither is the hour that ticked off three hours ago. Thoreau said, “Time is a stream I go a-fishing in”, and anyone knows the best fishing is at dawn. My best thinking, day in and day out, is in that still, quiet, dark-to turning-light time before 7am. Way before. My brain is on fire then, and I am reading, devotedly reading, and being inspired and instigated and making plans and writing down ideas in one notebook or another, and like they’d say on WBCN back in 1960s Boston, “the creek ain’t rising and there ain’t no meltdown” , and it is all good. It’s all good.
Now don’t mention this to my wife, but the 5:30 thing isn’t working for me anymore. I think the real magic is earlier. Now, with the new Keto-oriented eating lifestyle I’ve adopted, you read all the time that lots and lots of adequate sleep is absolutely crucial to staying healthy. Of course I also read all the time that writers and artists do some of their best work at 3am, and that there is and long has been a strong case to be made for less sleep for a more productive life, or for shorter sleep periods and subsequent naps. Like most things, there is no shortage of conflicting opinions.
But for me, the 5:30 thing needs to go. Getting up at 4:42 today was so cool, and I found myself with more early energy and charge for the day than I have in a while. Still, it was only 45 minutes before the usual wake-up. Nah, and pssst, keep this to yourself, I’m ready to begin waking and getting up at 4:00 every morning – months and months and months of 4am life. Where the action is.
I don’t want to be like Spenser. Or like all the people who think sleeping-in is a good thing. In fact, maybe you. Because my son and all those people are flat-out missing the boat. And kids – when I say “the boat” – I mean “The Boat!”
We bought a new couch recently. It’s a very comfy sectional. I find myself falling asleep on it in the evening sitting up. Never been a couch sleeper. Turns out I just never had the right one. But I do love the morning. Quiet time to do the “me” things before the wold wakes up. Not sure I’m ready for 4:00 AM yet through. Go for it Buddy.
Love the SPENCINATOR!
AKA The REAL DEAL!
Tell him Uncle Andy loves and misses him!
Just this morning, as I woke up, I fantasized about my upcoming retirement (in 9 months, 18 days) and how delicious it will be to not only sleep in, but to laze in bed daydreaming, staying warm under the covers, and contemplating the day…Really, if he wants to get up at 4 that will just make it easier to go back to sleep.
As a guy- whose first job was culling the clams of the older clam poacher kids in the neighborhood on the great South Bay and watching for the marine police-@ 5 am -then commercial fishing starting @ the ripe old age of 16 I was always an early riser…
Generally I fall asleep sometime around 7 -8 sometimes earlier.
Which gets me up anywhere from midnight to 4 the latest –
I like the Monks Hours as I call them –
the time of day where the revelers are dark and inebriated doing things they normally don’t do.
I align & create in Epicly divine communion as it is the time of the spirit poetry -amd candlelight paintings as well.
After I finish I go out and see the denizens in Hollywood ( at the moment ) or where ever I may be –
I learned to nap on my feet fishing so I am able to rest whenever wherever I am- it’s an art all of its own.
I wrote this one realizing I sleep like I’m on a ship…
I sleep in watches
As My employer never rests
always
at the ready
for the call.
Emissary
ambassador
No more fear
walked through the door…
Into a point of no return.
Humbly
refine
my space
in time
Enter
the
new
paradigm
Where everything
Has been redefined
Now I see with clarity
All that I am called to be.
A calling that I can’t deny
One that required
me
to die
To be
reborn
Help mend the torn
The broken
Lost
The shattered .
spirits
spirits
everywhere
Upon life’s
Landscape
scattered.
Piece yourself
together again
Love
is all that matters
Brought to grace
Brought to ease
Supplicant
Now
Here to please
To do your will
To do your bidding
To help the ill
The
all forbidding.
Please Remove
All that blocks
All that deters
That fetters
Me from knowing
All that’s you
From
being even
Better.
Another watch
In Early morning
Some are awake
Most are snoring.
Most just take
That seems so boring
Let’s Learn
to give it all away
Learn to laugh
Learn to Play
Learn too have fun
Anyway.
Owl just
screeched silent
She never left
So grateful
that I’m
In the west!
Just this morning, as I woke up, I fantasized about my upcoming retirement (in 9 months, 18 days) and how delicious it will be to not only sleep in, but to laze in bed daydreaming, staying warm under the covers, and contemplating the day…Really, if he wants to get up at 4 that will just make it easier to go back to sleep.
Thanks Keith…lovely words filled my heart. Susan
I am truly humbled that something in my posts keeps bringing out the amazement for life and the spirit that you keep sharing – especially these long poems which are so heart-felt and spinning endlessly through life, shooting stars out along their paths. Truly amazing. Many thanks.
Oh no not 4am Buddy! Your poor wife, that;s the middle of the night lol! Really enjoyed reading this, not sure if you’re winding us up or not but it makes a great story!