I am one with the morning

Once a week I get up at 4:30 am (a 15 minute departure from the regular wakeup call) so I can get out on the road for my long run (11-12 miles). It's a work day so I have to squeeze in as much time for as many miles as possible. Typically, I am out the door by 5 am or so.

It is now pitch black at that hour, as it is most of the year. I run outside all year long regardless of weather. There are maybe three or four months in the year when those runs begin as the sun is coming up welcoming a new day, the remainder of the year it is completely dark but for the street lights and occasional vehicle traffic.

The darkness mixed with the stillness of a new day are extremely enjoyable. This stillness is broken only by my footfalls and an occasional dog barking in the distance. As I pass by houses in my neighborhood I know which neighbors are early risers and which are not. As I pass by bus stops I give a good-morning shout to the "morning people", my people--predominately folks that work in the service industry on their way to work. In a nearby community I run right down the middle of the main drag, it is empty and calm--the antithesis of what it becomes when the thirty-something businesses open for the day beginning with the coffee shop at 6 am.

Eventually the sun rises in the distance and I watch it raise with new promise. As it washes over the landscape it reminds me of wrapping paper being peeled off a present. It is the same present that I open every day and yet there is always that sense of awe and surprise. I am one with the morning.