Early to bed, Early to Rise.

I was awaken by two little monsters bright, well actually it was still dark, nonetheless, bright and early this morning at the awful hour of 4:00 a.m. Once Liberty and Alaysia where nicely slumbering in their bed once again, I snuggle back into my bed, puff my pillows, tucking one between my knees and one under my head, looking forward to a few more hours of much needed sleep, I lay there.....wide awake. As I look at the clock, my body tells me GO TO SLEEP, but my mind refuses. It wasn't as though my mind was racing or really doing anything. Just awake. After an hour of adempted sleep I begrudgingly pull myself out of bed to avoid the continued frustration of my inability to fall back asleep. I sit on the couch and open my computer to see what e-mails may await me. I find an article compairing the books "The Lord of the Rings" and "Atlas Shrugged" suggested by a dear friend. I enjoyed readining it. After waiding through a few more e-mails I read a chapter in "The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had."

It is difficult to admit, once I moved past the idea that "surely I should be asleep right now," I really began to enjoyed my morning. That is really something to be said, by me, especially at the current hour of 7:00 a.m.!

This revelation comes at an interesting time. As I begin to read the dauntingly thick book called "The Well-Educated Mind," Susan Wise Bauer recomendeds spending your reading time early in the morning. I did not meet this suggestion with open arms or an open mind rather. I have always felt that I am my best at night, that I would rather stay up until 4:00 a.m. and sleep into the day. As that may have been so years ago, before marriage, work, and especially children, it seems that my evenings are now spent in exaustion.

Toby has for a long time suggested I rise up early for various reasons. My father, someone I have always considered "a morning person," so by default could never truely understand "a night person" like myself, always woke me up horribly early (about 7:00 a.m.) while I was with him in the summer time. Oh how I hated that! And of course, don't forget the ever so frequent biblical accounts of God's followers rising early in the morning for prayer and devotion, preparing for the day, etc. (Genesis 28:18, Proverbs 31:15, Mark 1:35). (For many more references: www.bible-topics.com/Early-Rising.html).

Maybe there really is something to "early to bed and early to rise" being the "most effective path to wisdom" as suggested by Benjamin Franklin and referenced in "The Well-Educated Mind." All those aforementioned have indeed gained much more knowledge and wisdom than I can even grasp at this time in my life of 26 years.

Will the pleasure these last few hours of quiet time to myself, reading and writing, out weigh my automatic response to hitting the snooze button "just one more time" in the morning, or my temptation to do "just one more" thing before finally going to bed at night? This is yet to be seen. However, one thing I do know is that I have begun a quest toward betterment.