Good Morning.
This is my very first blog entry.
It’s taken me a while to sit down and write for an audience again. For many years, I felt constrained by the opinions of others. I think many of us feel this way. So, I kept my words to myself—maybe shared them with lovers, with sweet, sweet friends—but most of the time, I held them inside.
So this is to say: thank you for joining me on this journey.
A Poem for This Beginning
To mark this first entry, I want to share a poem.
It’s by Gregory Orr, from his book Concerning The Book That Is The Body Of The Beloved:
I saw my own body, stiff and dead, under a tree.
I saw the beloved bend over my corpse
and breathe life in through my mouth.And again I was alive inside.
I felt my lips loosen and shape
the vowels of desire.I knew I would rise and walk into the fields.
I felt love move through my veins,
felt it move through all things in the world.
Perhaps this is a good place to start.
Because recently, I have felt desire fill me again—the desire to write, to reflect, to step into a new chapter. And this time, desire has taken the shape of hope.
I feel lucky that this is the case.
A Meditation on Morning
I wanted this to be a meditation on morning.
It isn’t particularly early as I write this—it’s 9:30 AM. The sun has been up for hours, though here in Berlin, it still sits low in the sky. The air is cool, the world is waking.
I sit on my porch, watching the people pass by on the walking path just beyond the fence. This path cuts through the city, where a park meets residential streets. People from all walks of life move through this space.
It is one of my favorite things—to sit here, to watch, to feel the movement of the world.
And I know I am privileged to be able to sit in this stillness. I do not hear gunshots. I do not hear bombs. I am safe, while so many are not. And it should not be this way.
Perhaps what I can do is offer you a moment of presence—share with you how I have arrived here, how the mornings in my life have led me to this place.
The Mornings That Shaped Me
I have always loved waking up early.
Maybe I inherited this from my mother. As a child, she would wake me early for road trips—bags packed, snacks already in the car. We never knew where we were going. Sometimes it was the beach. Sometimes it was hours away, states away.
The adventure was in the mystery.
My father was much the same—though more structured, more demanding. He, too, loved the early hours. My little siblings would wake at dawn, and if the day allowed, my father—who was a pilot—would take them in a small plane to Ocean City, New Jersey.
They would eat in a tiny diner by the shore. They would run, play, return home before the rest of the world had even woken up.
My parents were very different people, but I imagine that if they had ever figured things out, if they had grown old together, they would have spent their mornings side by side.
The Sacred Space of Morning
There is something sacred about the morning.
I love waking just before sunrise, feeling the stillness of the world, before the rush begins.
Morning is expectancy. It builds like a quiet hum, an energy that mirrors the start of something new—the anticipation before a birth, the pause before a transformation.
This feeling is a gift. It is a treasure.
And I wonder—what gives you this feeling?
A Question for You
What allows you to feel renewed and restored after a dark night?
After a tiny death, or perhaps a very real one, how do you find the resurrection of newness in your soul?
I would love to know.
But more importantly, I want you to know.
Write it down. One sentence, one word.
Put it in your phone.
Tuck it into your wallet.
Whisper it to yourself five times today.
That is that thing.
That thing that calls you back to yourself.
For Those in Grief
Sometimes, when we are in deep grief, that thing may not bring the joy we hoped for.
Sometimes, nothing does.
But keep searching.
Something—somewhere, some day—will bring it back.
And I hope that in some small way, I can help you with that search.
To help you connect to something that will hold you, even when you cannot hold it back.
A Blessing for the Day
With that, I wish you a beautiful, beautiful day.
Thank you for taking this moment with me.
I am honored.
Until next time. 💛
