"Me time" at 5AM

No matter what day of the week it is, I still wake up at my usual 5AM. Everyone is still sleeping, so I use this peaceful time as “me time”.  I close my eyes with a sigh of anticipation of bliss, only to hear my heart start beating faster – apparently my mind,  at the time of such quietness, decides to start loudly thinking about the Monday.

Rule No. 2: Be in the Now, if that makes any sense.

So I command my brain to think of the activities I should plan on doing today. The bargaining starts immediately after the command – there are only two days a week we get to ourselves (at least that’s what we think), and there is so much to do in so little time. But I don’t let my habit win the bargain, so I tell myself to choose ONE activity to do today. And not to forget that I have to enjoy it.

Enjoy?..

Yup. This is a word I used to know, but, as years have gone by, it has become pretty foreign to me. But I am determined to familiarize myself with that word and feeling again. So I searched in my brain for all the things I used to like – they should be somewhere out there. After a while, fun things started coming up, like reading or even flipping through a magazine, baking, sewing, traveling, or simply walking at the beach… and not necessarily in that order. Hopefully, you, my reader, (if you are out there), are not at the stress level like I have gotten myself into, but I just thought that doing all these things on their own may feel weird – too slow for my fast-paced life.

It is only Day 3, and I am not willing to give up my project, so I will pick something basic like a walk at the hills that are across the street from my house. After living in this house for seven years, I never took time to explore the neighborhood, as my usual route was getting to the garage to get in the car, and there I go...

As the household started waking up, I turned to my always-go-to man, who quite often takes Alex and our dog Lucy to the hills. So I ask him to join them today. He looked at me suspiciously and said, “of course, honey…”

… and I will ignore his suspicious look and will move on with my plan.

Will report my finds tomorrow.

With love, always…

xo Zuma A.