When I Rise ..

When I wake up in the morning, love
And the sunlight hurts my eyes
And something without warning, love
Bears heavy on my mind
Then I look at you
And the world's alright with me
Just one look at you
And I know it's gonna be

- Bill Withers

For some odd reason, people like to think that I don't sleep. Yes I may go to sleep some nights at 11:30pm and wake up at 4:30am or even go to sleep at 3am and wake back up at 6am, I don't know why I do that, I just do. My body is all sorts of jacked up. Either way, I eventually sleep, and when I do, I have to wake back up. When I do wake up, I have the same routine that I go by every morning to ensure that  I don't miss a beat. It's very important to me because I pay homage to a lot of people that are important to me.

Well first before anything, I need to take a minute and gather myself and realize that I have awaken from my peaceful slumber. Depending on what I need to do, whether it be taking a drink of water because my mouth is dryer than the Sahara, or I need to get up and use the bathroom. After that's done, I climb back into the bed and lay there for about a couple of minutes, just getting myself together, not really thinking about anything. I sort of just sit there in the peace and quiet and relax, letting my senses adjust to being awake.

Then I say a little prayer to myself for everyone, not people I just know. I like to do that because you never know who could need a prayer, regardless if they are religious or not. My prayer includes that, then I say something about starting the day off right and leaving all the negativity in the previous day. Then finally I say a little prayer for the people that I do know and love, especially if one of them is having a problem with anything, I put that at the top of that order. So that's the first thing I do in my day after gathering my bearings.

Then after I do that, I proceed to get up, stretch, let out the initial morning yell, and do the do. Make up the bed, straighten up, make sure all that I'm taking out for the day is on the bed. Think if I need to do anything for the day, and if so, what I would need to do it. Then I brush my teeth, then hop in the shower. As I am in the shower doing my best rendition of either a rapper or singer, I remember either something I have to do or something that I wanted to write about from the day before or my dream. So I try to keep that on my mind when I'm in the shower, so when I get out, I can adjust.

After doing the proper maintenance to myself, I get dressed and all that good stuff. Now this is the second most important part of my day after praying. This is because when I get dressed, I put on my dog tags, black bracelet, and kiss my good luck charm. People ask why do I wear my dog tags still even though I'm not in the military full time anymore, and the reason for that is because a lot of good men died while I was in, and a lot of them I met during training. I know you can go and buy dog tags for a couple bucks, but those dog tags are the ones I earned with some men that had their will tested by some pretty rigorous obstacles in training, that not everyone goes through. So I wear them for them. I wear my bracelet for all the ones that are deployed and doing hardship tours and getting it in. Reminds me to always appreciate what I have, and who's protecting my best interests. Then I kiss my good luck charm because it keeps me sane and focus throughout the day. Just a daily reminder that I have a goal that I am working towards and to never lose focus.

After doing that I straighten back up, make sure I'm not forgetting anything. I take one final look around my room, go downstairs, get something to drink and snack on, sometimes I cook. But after I do that, I'm out the door for the day, and usually not back til I get done with things. That's pretty much how I start my day in a nutshell. It's pretty routine and organized, I like it that way because it keeps me from missing a step a lot of days. When you're just rushing or you don't know what's going on, I found you tend to make a lot of mistakes.

Do you have a morning routine? If so, let me know in the comments below.