So, it's almost 4 AM again and, after moving with me from bed to computer and back again, the dog has decided it's bed he wants to be in. Serves me right, waking up at outrageous hours like this. I am beginning to think it's a seasonal thing. I have a feeling I wouldn't be getting up at 3 in the morning if it was bitter cold outside. But with weather like we have now, I can prop the door open and the cats can get a good unicorn hunt in before dawn.
And cats are what is known as pre-dawn hunters. Small critters forage for food in the wee hours before dawn. The kind of small critters that cats love to eat, rabbits, mice, unicorns, etc. Just some trivia to start your morning...welcome to my world.
It's amazing how good cheap coffee tastes this early. It tastes just as good as the expensive stuff. It's all relative to time, as I pointed out in my last blog. A cup at 3 AM tastes much more satisfying than a cup at 6 AM, not simply because my taste buds have been resting overnight. In the house I live in, pre-dawn is reserved exclusively for myself and the cats. As I said, the dog usually goes back to bed.
Although now, the dog has decided that, as long as I am going to run lights and keep him awake, it is a sterling time to have a tug-of-war with me, with his favorite toy playing a pivotal role.
Dawn is coming. All of those who did not have electricity know the importance of this time of day. The ancients in the Roman Empire down to Ben Franklin lauded this time as the best time for reading and writing. And then for a quiet, contemplative walk in the Garden.
After a light breakfast, I would have headed down to the Forum or to the print shop or wherever I worked. I would come back at 11 or so for some olives and lettuce, or some oysters, and laid down for the subsequent nap during the hottest part of the day.
So you see, I am not far off of the time schedule laid out by those in the past. It makes one wonder what schedule was kept by those who lived "pre-history," or that time in history before Humankind had the alphabet. I would imagine it would fall within the lines above, to maximize the use of day light. So the invention of electricity laid to rest a schedule handed down through eternity. And my habit of waking up at 3 AM is not unhealthy, as my therapist would have it. Just timeless as dawn.
There is a waiting quality at this hour that is interrupted by the sun and the stirring noises of modern peoples. I would like to have my ashes spread at dawn, along Tinker Creek, where I spent the best times of my life, strolling with my service dog, Eddie.
Right now, Jupiter, the Moon and Venus are in close proximity from our viewpoint. I'm going outside to enjoy the view, until the daystar obliterates the sight...have a good dawn, and I will be imagining you down at the Forum, waiting for me to appear to carry our daily greetings...
