Early to rise

I feel better when I run early in the morning. So I have gotten up early (5:15) in order to have a good breakfast (Joe's O's), write in my blog (herewith), and get to the gym by 7:20, so that I can still be in my office by 8:30 to get ready for my 9:30 class. So far, so good.

Of course I will be mighty tired by 9 p.m. this evening, when we finish up the drumming circle. But that will help me get a good night's sleep tonight in order to start all over early tomorrow morning. My buddy Len is in the drumming circle too. Last night (or early this morning) I had a dream that included Len. He and I were chest-deep in the water of a harbor. The bottom was an uneven surface of rocks and shellfish. We were discussing the color reproduction of a printed publication. I think it might have been a color newspaper page. The printer came along--also in the water--and Len and I were talking to him about how to make the color better, but he didn't seem to understand the four-color printing process newspapers use, in which the four colors or printing ink are cyan (blue), magenta (red), yellow, and black. I couldn't understand how the printer himself didn't seem to understand what we were saying. All the time I was trying to tread water because the rough floor of the harbor hurt my feet. Clearly I was remembering my many years in thenewspaper business and mixing it with my new friendship with Len on the drumming circle and recent experiences swimming in the pond in front of my house and elsewhere on Cape Cod.

I find I do my best writing early in the morning. On sabbatical I plan to set up a regular routine that includes getting up early and writing early in the morning. I wonder if I should save running and meditating until later in the day so that I can get right to writing. On the other hand, meditating before writing is also a good practice. Perhaps I should rise, meditate, write, and then run.