Waking up early this morning, one of my first thoughts was that my brain must be full. It was 6:30 a.m. and usually I don’t begin to stir until closer to 8 a.m. About thirty years ago, I turned my bedside alarm buzzer off and since then, I have depended on my body clock for morning wakeup. I’m a firm believer that I’ll awaken when I’m fully rested.
Psalm 127:2 offers a good guideline: “It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors; for He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.” I especially like the last clause because I look at sleep as one of the Creator’s gifts, confirming to me what various experts have discovered: sleep is important!
When I awaken early − with a full brain − I think it’s because I’ve been so rejuvenated in the night that fewer hours of sleep were necessary. However, my sleeping habits can be erratic. Sometimes I wake in the night and can’t get back to sleep for a couple hours; when I eventually return to bed, I may sleep until 9 a.m. Thankfully, my Beloved understands and accepts my idiosyncratic habits!
Once I scoured the emails for today, I clicked over to a blog post at Modern Mrs. Darcy where her post was titled Making a fresh start (and ditching my alarm clock). Needless to say, I was amused. When I ditched my alarm clock, it was about the same time I’d begun home educating my children. We still had appointments and some ordinary time constraints, but the clock ceased to be our master. I hope it works out as well for Mrs. Darcy as it has for me.
You might call that Secret Number One in the Wiseblood Guide to The Secrets of Life. Turn off your alarm clock! (In his uniquely droll manner, my Beloved would cast a pun my way: it’s alarming!)
Yes, I know. Very few of us have a valet to come in and raise the shades while gently urging us to wake. A wake-up call from the front desk is also unlikely. Train your body clock! And when you absolutely, positively have to be somewhere before sun-up, use your smart-phone as a back-up. (Mrs. Darcy admits her reluctance to take the phone to bed. We have a waterbed and I stuff mine down in the crevice until morning. No temptation but it’s always close at hand.) Continue reading “The Secrets of Life”