I say a prayer of thanks every morning I wake up
Except about the whole having-to-wake-up thing
This is a simple one of my short poems. The first line of the poem strikes a very traditional chord, dealing with morning prayer and thanks. Of course, the every morning I wake up can be taken two ways. It can be taken as a wordy way of saying every morning. Or, it can be taken as a reference to giving thanks for those mornings that you wake up as opposed to not waking up. Combining these two potential interpretations contrasts what may be a mundane routine of morning prayer with the profound gratitude of being alive at all. Then, not surprisingly, as is given my style, the second line of the poem is a reversal or a contrast with the first line. The profound importance of a morning prayer of thanks for being alive is contrasted with the mundane and often unwelcome chore of having to get up out of bed, which of course, requires waking up. I recognize this conundrum mostly from past experience, as my present life is of a leisurely pace and structure that typically does not require me to force myself to get up at a particular time, which my mind and body might deem arbitrary and unwelcome. I have largely solved this conundrum that is commonplace in our culture of busyness and structured time. For this I’m extremely grateful. I get a double dose of gratitude by getting the wonderful opportunity to wake up in the morning and to take little time to appreciate that by not having to worry or be pressed by having to get out of bed. In fact, calling this a double dose may be short-changing the reality of the synergy of graces of getting to wake up and not having to get out of bed right away juxtaposed to one another. I highly recommend it!
