I have several times of day that I consider my favorite. They aren't what I expect is common but they are special in the qualities and moments they bring.

I have come to love waking up at 3:00AM. Not to get up but just to wake up. I can remember days when it might be anxiety and worry that would have me awake at 4 staring at the ceiling but I seem to have been able to tame that beast, at least for now.

Waking up at 3, it is peaceful and quiet and very dark. It is these times when I can sometimes hear the bells of the church in town or hear owls or coyote in the back woods or when there is a full moon the beams streak though the side window. The house is peaceful and I just barely wake up. This time feels like the joining of two worlds, the threshold leaving one day and approaching the next, a very thin space as I like to call them.



I've taken to using this brief time to send positive thoughts to a list of people who can use them. As I think the name I feel that I am handing it off for safe keeping. I think requests for assistance or for guidance. I send messages of peace.

Very peacefully and methodically I go through this and drift off to sleep again.



Then there is 5AM when I usually love waking up. Again it is dark, darker this time of year than even this photo and I get up quickly when I wake and make my way to the coffee pot and bathroom, all in the dark. Then for a half hour or so I just sit near the window and sip my coffee or walk out to the porch to feel the morning breezes.

Then on really good days, at 5:30 I get on my shorts and sneakers and mp3 player and head outside to run into town and back. The sky is dark and street lights are dim, there is rarely a car and only occasionally are there lights on in the houses I pass. Running through town it is quiet and peaceful and I head back home to get ready for the day and start waking up the family.

On an average day the daytime is fairly routine with an occasional special moment, but nothing I can count on. But then at 6:30 I am home and usually everyone else is too and that is my next favorite time. Eating dinner with my wife and kids, hearing of their day, hearing them laugh, enjoying their presence and then doing nothing special or like tonight leading a congo line of teens around the house in goofy laughter.

Of course there are are other special times on many days but these are my special times that make things feel right and if missed I feel off kilter.

Do you have special times? Think about it, I'm sure you do.