Beautiful Mornings

I really have my kids to thank you for this.

I used to sleep at around 11 pm or 12 am every night. In the morning, I will wake up tired and grouchy. When I commute to work, I will be in half-sleep mode.

However, after I had kids, I started sleeping earlier and earlier. At the start of it, it was because my daughter could not seem to sleep without me. During the half an hour or more that it takes her to sleep, I would fight to stay awake in the dimly-lit room. My eye lids would droop, and the next thing I knew, it was 2 am in the morning. I had fallen asleep sitting up by her bedside.

As the saying goes, if you cannot fight them, join them.

Against all the parenting advice that you should sleep train your kids, I started sleeping in with them.

So I would sleep at 10.30 pm every night (yup, I also lost in the battle to get them to sleep earlier…). And I will try my best to wake up at 5.30 am every morning. A full 7 hours of sleep.

Now, I really love the mornings.

There is a sweetness in the mornings that cannot be described. The air feels cool. The house is quiet. You can hear the sound of water trickling down pipes.

I feel at peace and in a contemplative mood.

I can do all the things I love to do in the morning. Go jogging. Surf the net. Write some nonsense. Read the newspapers. A full hour to do the things I love.

And it means all the world to me.