wake up with the sun

Since I’m not usually up at sunrise, I started thinking yesterday that I might have jumped into this without doing the proper research. How early does this actually get? I know that here the day expands on both ends, that sunrise comes earlier and earlier and sunset later and later until at the Summer Solstice we have the longest day of the year. Is that the earliest sunrise? What time is the earliest sunrise?

Obviously I know that sunrise in LA never happens at 3 a.m., but are we talking 5:15? 5:20? 5:30? 5:40?

Interestingly, according to this one website I’ve been using, the earliest sunrise is 5:41 and it gets there by June 9th. Solstice is June 20 and by then, sunrise is at 5:43. Which means that the earliest sunrise is not on the longest day. That is mildly counter-intuitive and may win me a beer someday if I can remember it.

Now here’s something else. I guess if somebody asked me what the difference between “dawn” and “sunrise” was, I would have come up with the answer. But I started thinking, if this goal were “wake up at dawn” instead of “wake up with the sun”, which I chose to interpret as “wake up at sunrise” but perhaps if I do this really well I could reinterpret to mean dawn… hell, where’d my sentence go? So, I started thinking, if this were “wake up at dawn” what time would THAT be? According to this other website I found, dawn is 25-27 minutes earlier than sunrise.

There is no end to my musings today.

Are you wondering if I did it today? No, I snoozed once. Sunrise was at 6:48. I got up at 6:58 after one snooze. Maybe tomorrow.

This should get easier as it warms up.

I’m not a morning person. I have never been a morning person. I particularly don’t like getting up in the dark. But I think I can get up with the sun.

In high school, I used to try to get up early to study before school. I would just end up snoozing over and over, or worse, getting up, going downstairs, falling asleep on the couch and actually being late.

6 or 7 years ago, there was a period of time when I was working outside of the house and training for a marathon. Since I’d get home after dark and tired, I started running at 6 a.m. before work. I would have to put my running clothes next to the bed and when the alarm went off, dress and go out with as little thinking as possible. Usually during that time period, I’d get about 2 miles out to the turn around and when I did turn back, the sun would just be coming up, burning off the mist and filtering through the trees. It was always stunning. But, yet, the next day, I would DRED getting up.

I don’t like getting out of a warm bed into the cold air. I know, I know, I live in Southern California, how friggin’ cold could it be? Yet, there it is. It feels cold in the mornings.

I did manage during my week at the Shambhala Mountain Center to relatively cheerfully get up at 6 a.m. every day to get to the morning sessions. I would see the sunrise on the way to the Sacred Studies Hall, knee deep in snow, my breath a massive fog around my head. I think the structure of the day, having someplace I had to be in the mornings, really helps me get up.

In general, I’m never late for anything in the morning. I can take 6 a.m. flights, I can get to work on time, I can make it to morning classes. But getting up early, particularly before the sun is up, has never been easy or pleasant. Without something specific to get up to do, I tend to delay getting up, stretching out my morning in bed as much as possible.

It isn’t like it was in college or before of course, there are no sleep till noon days anymore. But sleeping till 9 or 10 for a 40 year old man feels indulgent.

I feel like the struggle every morning is not healthy. I feel like I’m sleeping too much. I feel like I could do more of my desired daily tasks if I could get started earlier.

I felt that way before I took a new job that is out of the house. And now I have a new job. Now I will be getting up, showering and dressing, driving someplace. Early. No more coffee machine to desk commute in my PJs, now I have to be presentable. Actually, I am looking forward to this. A lot.

I start next Monday, by the way. It doesn’t really feel real yet.

For the last 3 or 4 weeks I have set my alarm for sunrise. I look it up each night and adjust the time back a min every couple days. One of these weeks, sanvea and I were in Hawaii, so we rarely got up with the alarm.

Most days, I acknowledge the sun, turn it off, and sleep for another 30 min or more. A couple days, I have slept till 8 or 9. Today, I got up at 7:22.

It isn’t much of a success, but I haven’t given it up. After some time and some thought, I dared to put it here on my list of goals. To share it with you. Thanks for listening.