Light of Life
Are you an early bird or night owl? I gravitate towards the early bird, though I don’t always get up early, I LOVE mornings! I love the quietness, the light, the beauty in the sunrise and perhaps a little bit, I love the promise of a new day. Oh, and the smell of fresh ground, fresh brewed coffee!!!
I convinced my husband not to use an alarm to wake up and it’s been wonderful! It was kind of a hard sell because he was afraid he’d not get to work on time. However, if you are anything like us, you probably wake up naturally at the same time each day, usually BEFORE the alarm you set. Each morning would play out like this…we’d wake up, go to the bathroom, snuggle back in bed, and get comfortable just in time for the alarm to sound. This is NO WAY to start your day!!!
I simply asked him to try not using it for a while and seeing how it worked out. He was pretty nervous at first, afraid he’d sleep too late and not get to work on time. Now of course there are days when we have to set an alarm because there is an activity that requires us to be up earlier than normal. But for the most part, we’ve been alarm free.
Why does this matter? Well, he too is a morning person and when we were using the alarm, he’d start the day grumpy because the “$^&*#!” alarm went off and he'd hit the snooze button 2-3 times which would make him and me on edge and defensive. He’d sleepily get into the shower and I’d shuffle to the kitchen to start the coffee. Neither one of us walking up thanking God for a beautiful morning or being grateful for another day.
Now instead, we wake up naturally and often have time to cuddle up for a little squeeze before rolling out of bed. It’s a much more pleasant morning routine without the alarm and the snooze button. An additional bonus of this, no alarm routine is that the alarm is on his cell phone and when the alarm/snooze button went off, he’d immediately begin to check messages and emails. He’d start working before he would even get out of bed!
It did take a little to get used to because there would be days when we’d have a hour or more to get ready for our day so we’d casually get ready and have breakfast together. However, there are some late mornings when we both are trying to get out of the house, rushing to get ready and grabbing a granola bar to eat on the way. The difference in these two scenarios is not as far apart as one might expect because we knew there would be some days we’d have to deal with the consequences of waking up later than we’d hoped. These late mornings don’t cause us panic, like before when we were using an alarm and we’d forget to set it. We have a different mindset now.
I believe the mindset shift is simple and super hard at the same time. It’s simple because we each set our own narrative in our minds of what we need and expect. It’s super hard because sometimes we can’t tell the difference between our own narrative and the narrative of others telling us what we need and their expectations.
The conversation with my husband to stop setting an alarm wasn’t a one and done, we discussed it a few times. What changed? Well, I can’t exactly say for sure but I think after doing it a few times on the weekends and on vacation, he fell in love with the ease of the morning routines that he wanted to replicate the feeling EVERY morning. It’s refreshing and the natural routine allows God to be present, not just cause he’s with us always, but because we are aware of his blessings as we begin each new day!
