Hello, sun in my face.

Hello, you who made the morning

and spread it over the fields

and into the faces of the tulips

and the nodding morning glories,

and into the windows of, even,

the miserable and the crotchety-

best preacher that ever was,

dear star, that just happens

to be where you are in the universe

to keep us from ever-darkness,

to ease us with warm touching,

to hold us in the great hands of light-

good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day

in happiness, in kindness.

-Mary Oliver, Why I Wake Early

Chris and Claire wrote that in the front cover of the journal they made me for my birthday. My first thoughts when I woke up today were slightly crabby ones and I tried to make them happy. Then I remembered that poem, and now they are. I love mornings and words and poetry and joy.