Melancholy Morning

Surprise! I woke up at 4:30 AM on this fine Saturday morning; with the exception of a terrible headache and a throbbing right foot I feel great. The bad thing is that I can't remember doing anything to cause my foot to hurt so...I was kicking myself over a choice I made yesterday.

Morning has always been my favorite time of the day, and as I sit here thinking about my daughter I think I know why. Morning was the time that we shared while my wife and son slept. She would wander into the kitchen in a t-shirt that went down to her calves and sit on my lap without saying anything. I would hug her for a while and eventually she would put some space between us and ask me some seemingly innocent question that took about an hour to fully discuss; "Why does Joshua (the dog) wag his tale?" As we both slowly woke up , and our minds were each going a hundred miles an hour again, the moment passed and we were back to wearing each other, and everyone around us, out with our energy.

Her intelligence has always amazed me. She taught herself the alphabet when she was four because she wanted to be able to read the signs along the highway. At five she would draw pictures of people having a conversation; the words coming out of the person looking to the left would start from their mouth and make backwards words and sentences. The letters, the spelling of the words and the sentence structure were all backwards, it was amazing. The sad thing is that with her genius and energy, she never adapted to school or enjoyed it. Her third grade teacher told me in a conference that he wasn't too sure she had the ability to be in his class. Pardon this please, but that disgraceful little turd didn't deserve to teach her.

So, here we are 14 years later. My mind is starting to wake up, and what was clear and simple an hour ago is now under layers of thought. My fingers are hitting letters in the next word before this one is complete. I know that my daughter will begin her day the same way. I'd like to be there for that first hour, when we are both relaxed and uncluttered.

My foot feels better and I think I'll be able to run this morning after all. The nice thing about running is that enough energy is going out of my body that my mind works very well; I usually figure problems out while I run.

For a penny, the world fell away. Have a good day.