About This Morning

I love the early morning. I've been a morning person for as long as I can remember. Morning is when the previous day's slate has been wiped clean and all new things are possible.

My mother was a morning person, and maybe I got it through the genes. She would awake around 5:30 am, get the coffee brewing and then take a shower. After that she’d wake us girls up and cook breakfast for herself, for us, and for my father.

Now that I’m older, I especially treasure mornings because that’s when I get to run. Streets that are normally choked with traffic (and rulllly annoying) become my own personal boulevards. This time of year the birds, who come to life before dawn, chirping and singing, become my peers. (Confession: Sometimes I chirp to them and they answer back.)

You may have guessed by this point in the post that I had a good run this morning (insert smile here). I’m not totally healed. I may never do a run longer than five miles in my life again. But I’m out there. Today it was four miles—run four minutes, walk one, then repeat—and I went to Emeryville. The Emery Greenway, which I believe will eventually link up to the Ohlone Greenway, recently added a crucial three blocks between Berkeley Bowl West and the existing Greenway. Paving. Plants. An adjacent dirt path. And lights—good ones, good enough that I feel safe running there even before the sun comes up.

This is enough to say for today. No “yeah, but maybe…” or “then next Wednesday I’ll....” No. Just, “this is me, a natural-born morning person, and I’m happy today.”

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