Welcome back old friend

This morning was different than most for me lately. My eyes jumped open at 5:07am and I shot out of bed ready to face the world. Perhaps it was my promise to become gradually more austere in my pursuit of a yogic lifestyle, or my old friend the sun sent me a message to come and bid him good morning. Either way it was a nice change not to feel tired and glued to the mattress.

I took a stroll out to what we call "sound of music hill" (because it looks exactly like the hill in the movie) to see what it is like in the early morning. It was amazing. The air was so full of energy that I found myself breathing much deeper than usual. It was as if I were trying to pull some of the energy outside of my body inward. I think that it worked. I feel great right now.

The sunrise was very nice to watch, even though it is still very overcast it was nice to get a glimpse of the sun. It is pretty evident that today will be much dryer and brighter than the past week of gloom and rain. I am so thankful for that.

I saw seven different deer this morning in a few different spots. If it is not completely evident, I really like seeing deer. I was in my office the other day with two co-workers who were all wrapped up in a discussion about an international shipment, tariffs, and God knows what else, and there was a doe and a button buck standing 5 feet from the window of my office. I totally spaced out of the conversation as they droned on and on about wooden pallets getting held up in customs because of beetles. Finally they noticed the deer, but did not seem to be nearly excited as I was.

This place still shocks me on a daily basis. It is so very beautiful. The deer on sound of music hill this morning were there before the lights came up, and so was I. I think that when I started to come into focus that I really put a downer on their morning. These were big deer, possibly rarely seen bucks. They stomped their hooves at me, blew, and snorted very loudly. Then they did something that I had never seen a deer do. They bounded off behind a thin tree line making all sorts of racket on the ground with their feet while blowing all the while. Then a moment or so later three heads popped out of the edge of the tree line to check me out. They actually got closer to me by using the tree line as cover. Typically deer just run away and are never seen again, these three put on quite a show.

So step one of the yogic lifestyle happened. I woke before the sun this morning. This of course was unaided by any alarm clock. I hope that this behavior will become habit. The early morning air is so special. I would like more of it in the future. Perhaps soon more aspects of yoga will come to me. I will keep the internet posted. You check back if you would like to know.