I think Shakespeare said it best when he said, “To hell with the Globe Theatre. Anne, warm up the second best bed and give thine husband snuggles.”*
Despite what I’m pretty sure is an almost direct quote from the great man himself, this post is not about Hamlet and Moor sleep. It about why I am wide awake at the crack of dawn.
For many of you, that’s the norm. For me, it is not. I’m a night owl. While all the other houses on our street are “lights out” at 10 or 11 o’clock, our lights are generally blazing into the night until 1 or 2 o’clock or later depending on when my daughter works. I think of our house as a deterrent to crime: “With lights a-blazin’, thieves won’t be brazen.” That’s from a nursery rhyme or maybe Dr. Seuss or Mr. Rodgers. I love to reference things. Sometimes, I’m even right.
Optimally, seven to seven and a half hours makes me a happy camper, but lately, I’ve been waking up early. Today, I beat all my records. Asleep at 1; awake at 5; up at 6, wide awake. This morning, as I lay in the dark, my mind churned with a list of all I want to accomplish today – chores, grocery shopping. In the words of Ben Franklin, Jr., “Late to bed, early to rise, makes a man jumpy, grumpy and approaching him unwise because he will take you down like a frog on flies.” His dad couldn’t have said it better.
The sun is up, I’m awake, breakfast has been eaten. I’m ready to start my day, but I’m not necessarily happy about it. On the plus side, I got to see my husband before he went to work. He’s used to getting up between 5 and 6, but my usual vision of him is through a gauzy filter of barely opened eyes as he rouses me from sleep to say good-bye.
Since it’s Good Friday, we have church this evening. I hope someone gives me a nudge if I fall asleep during the service. But it’s okay; I can sleep in tomorrow. I’ll have to double check my Bible, but I’m sure somewhere it says, “Blessed are the poor in sleep habits, for their alarm is at eleven.”
Happy and blessed Easter to you all.
*Shakespeare’s will indicates that his wife was to receive “my second best bed.” There are two schools of thought on this: 1.) that this was a slight to his older wife, Anne, indicating the rocky nature of their 30 year marriage, or 2.) this was an extremely intimate gesture on his part, since most wealthy people kept a guest bed which was rarely used unless they had company. The second best bed would have been the marital bed.http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/shakespearewill.html
http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/resources/shakespeare-will-overview/
Thoughts, Socks and Jots 