Cold Mornings and Warm Musings

We have almost reached the end of 2019. Can you believe it? Just a few days left to write 2019 as your present year before entering into a new decade.

The chilled winter morning summons me awake (or maybe just my alarm does). I wake up earlier these days. I am more productive in the mornings, so why should I sleep later? After giving this a considered thought, I decided to start pushing my alarm to an earlier time to see how that goes. I now have more time in the morning to eat more leisurely as I read Scripture, and then I have more time to journal after that with my cup of coffee. That is definitely worth getting up a little earlier for.

I love mornings. They are freshened with the scent of a new day. My mind is the least cluttered it will be all day. The sun rises gently when I am getting ready, and on these darker winter mornings, it takes a bit longer for our sun to gain some height in the sky. I enjoy watching the light slowly increase as I sit dipping my spoon into my oatmeal with bananas, walnuts, honey, and cinnamon.

If I get to wear a cosy sweater, the day is even better. That is  partly why these winter days are my favourite. My coffee is now brewed in the french press, the light has grown, and I pour coffee into a mug and take it into my living room to journal. 

Journaling is my everyday essential - like a cup of coffee. But it is good for my soul, not just waking me up. I get many questions about what I journal about. The answer - anything I want. Anything at all. Whatever is on my heart, swirling in my mind, raining on my day, sifting through my thoughts. That's the beauty of journaling. Expression in the forms of words on a page is my own daily soul-food. It nourishes me. I do not do so well with speaking my words. Writing them is better. Writing is where I can freely roam and let loose the confines of my heart. The words can flow outward and usually the result is that I figure something out (some answer or some option) as I write. And very frequently the words then turn into prayer.

And there I sometimes sit, mixing, stirring, dwelling, pondering within such prayers. In this contemplative time, I am drawing closer to God. Resting at His feet, feeling nourished by His love.