Muggy But Almost Cool Morning Coffee Muses

You know, even without walking outside, that the humidity is back when every window in the house is covered with a frosting of dew drops. It’s cooler outside than in, so it shouldn’t be condensation… The windows are low e anyway. But on these mornings when you step out and feel the damp right down to your bones, on these cool humid mornings you know… mid day will be pushing the outermost edges of summer’s hell.

I am beginning to see that these morning muses are really my morning meditations combined with a morning pages journal with illustrations. I have arrived at this realization because when my morning routine is interrupted the rest of my day runs off kilter. Everything just feels a step out of balance. Missing a mockingbird’s musical sun salutation from the top of the cypress tree. Not being cautiously greeted by the cardinals on the feeder or the hummingbirds in battle over the control of theirs… Each of these things set the tone for how the day will turn out.

Speaking of mockingbirds… There were a few years there when I was wondering what happened to them. I have lived with the ever present songs of the mockingbirds for my entire life. There is a reason they are the state bird for a big part of the south. Then suddenly, this year, they are back. Singing their long and varied song from sun up to sun down, usually from the highest spire they can find. Like this morning, sitting up on the edge of heaven the whole world spread out below, welcoming the sun with a song… accompanied by the cardinals in the surrounding trees. A beautifully spiritual way to start a day.

And now the cattle egrets have landed, patrolling the freshly cut grass next door and wandering into my yard in search of breakfast… Speaking of which, I hear mine calling…