5:14 am.
I tap open the weather app.
23° F.
I glance out the window.
Dark. DARK.
The morning is the hardest time. It is hard enough anywhere for a man to begin the day’s work in darkness…One may be a long time realizing it, but cold and darkness deplete the body gradually; the mind turns sluggish; and the nervous system slows up in its responses…But I must not dwell on it. Otherwise I am undone.
~ Richard Byrd
I stare at the ceiling.
Go later. There will be light. It will be warmer.
I pull the comforter tighter.
Zeke sighs and nuzzles closer.
Who are you kidding? Get up and out.
I climb out of bed.
Needing the pull of inspiration, I take a new route.
The master said:
You must write what you see.
But what I see does not move me.
The master answered:
Change what you see.– Louise Glück, in Vita Nova