Why fight it? Why try to make it other than it is?

Since I’ve been in New York I wake up around 7:00 or 8:00 am. And it bugs me. That feels late to me. When I was in California, I used to get up around 6:00 am at the latest. I used to always wake up with the sun as the birds starting singing. But here, I go to bed later, and wake up later.

Enough of this, I’ve been thinking. It’s time to get back on schedule. I’ve had enough time to acclamate to strange time zone. It’s time to wake up earlier, the way I used to, and have those quiet morning hours.

So, I tried it yesterday. And my whole day sucked. I felt off kilter and almost ill. So, this morning, I woke with the sun, around 7:00 am. And while I wish I had those few precious early hours of morning I used to have in California, I figure, come summer, when the sun rises earlier (the sun does rise earlier in the summer in New York, doesn’t it? Or is this an entirely different planet with a different sun, moon and rotation?), I’ll wake up earlier. Or not. I’ll let the wisdom of my body decide.

As for the title of this post, it comes from a poem by Theodore Roethke, The Waking. It’s written in a specific type of form, the name of which I’ve forgotten. AP English was a long time ago, baby! Here it is:

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.