I’ve discovered one of my favorite times of day is probably the morning. I enjoy the quiet and the lack of busyness before the day really starts. With my cup of coffee in hand and nobody but me and God, it’s a grand time. (I know my mom will be tempted to say something like, “See!!!??? This is why I get up early!” No need, Mom. I know. 🙂 And I love you.)

However, I’ve found most mornings I struggle getting out of bed. I know the gloriousness that waits for me, but it’s often not enough to move my butt from the comfy memory foam it is engulfed in. Many mornings I lie there for a half hour or more before I finally become vertical. I long for the morning when my alarm goes off and I spring out of bed, fully rested. It has yet to happen. My alarm gets turned off as I roll over for a few extra Zzzzzs.

I want badly to make a habit of getting up a bit earlier. Inevitably, every morning that I lounge in bed a few minutes longer, I find myself grumbling about the walk I didn’t get to take or the extra ten minutes I could have spent journaling and perhaps meditating. Why is this such a struggle? Why is getting out of bed an extra 20 minutes earlier such an issue? Why, when I try, am I SOOOO groggy?

Drew and I have talked about this is in the past. He commented that it could be my body’s natural sleep rhythm. After getting up at 5:00 a.m. for so long while opening the Coffee Pub, my body went through a protest where it refused to awaken before 8:00 a.m. I gave myself that time to let my body catch up on sleep and tried to get into a more structured sleeping pattern. I think I’m there, but would love to shift that natural pattern back 20 or 30 minutes. I’ve found if I force myself awake before I’m ready, my lovely morning time is not so lovely, as I sit there struggling to keep my head up.

Now, I am a firm believer in sleeping in occasionally. Yesterday (Saturday), Drew and I didn’t get out of bed until almost 11. We napped on and off all morning, and enjoyed a blissful morning of not having to be anywhere. I also enjoy a few mornings during the week when my alarm goes off and I contemplate getting up, and Drew rolls over and snuggles up next to me. Times like that, spending the extra 20 minutes in bed seems like time well spent.

But why is it on this lazy Sunday morning, when I don’t need to be up until a bit later, that my body was wide awake at 7:20? I tried to sleep longer and simply could not. So I got up and tried not to wake Drew up. I did a bit of yoga, made my coffee, and sat down to enjoy my blissful morning of quiet. I found myself thinking, “Maybe the natural sleeping rhythm I’m hoping for is starting to settle in. Maybe I’ll start waking up this time every morning…” But I have a sinking feeling that when tomorrow rolls around and that obnoxious alarm goes off, my butt will be sinking in deeper to the memory foam and it will be once again hard to become vertical.

Here’s hoping that’s not the case.