A Cold November Morning

Brrr! It's a grey chilly day; snowflakes falling intermittently, piles of ice built up on the streets, plumes of white exhaust billowing up from the cars that are warming in their driveways. It would be so easy to just to turn inward, pull up the duvet covers and hibernate right now (something I had the luxury of doing occasionally in my pre-parenthood days) but this is no longer the case.

We have a curious little person living in our home who is excited to wake up even before the sun rises. He cries out 'Ma ma ma' and holds his arms up for me. We spend the morning in our cozy fleece pajamas (well he does anyway) and we watch our neighbour across the fence preparing breakfast for her little brood as well. It's still dark by the time I've poured my coffee and unloaded the dishwasher. Ben is usually snacking away on the small pieces of cheese or banana I have cut up for him and I strain to keep my eyes open while pouring a bowl of cereal for myself. I was never a morning person, nor do I think I'll ever be, but I see how excited my little guy is to embrace the day and I can't help but think that he's really on to something.

Yes it's dark, yes it's cold, yes I'm tired and would prefer to go back to sleep. But here lies a window of opportunity in our day when we can spend some quiet time with each other, not yet rushing to get errands done or having to answer the ringing phones. We can watch the world wake up together; watch the pale lustrous sunlight peeking just over the horizon and that is mighty exciting too!

It may be grey outside but it's going to be a good day!