Glowing Grey

There are only two kinds of people in this world, happy morning people and everyone else. My tent is firmly pitched in camp grumpy and I feel no shame. Andrew is in team smiley face and I sometimes wonder how on earth we have remained happily married for 35 years.

Asha is also traitorously in camp positivity. From the moment she opens her eyes she is super excited to get the day underway. She tries hard to pep me up and get me going, bouncing around and chasing her tail. She brings me so much joy, just not first thing in the morning. I need a few things before I can wake up and face my day.

Now I like to think of myself as an early riser. My preference is to wake up with the sun, which in summer can be 5am, but in winter like it is now, it’s more like 6:30am. So at this time of year I need to set an alarm and being jolted awake by my buzzing Fitbit first thing in the morning is not my idea of a quiet and peaceful start to the day.

I firmly believe it’s not normal to wake up when it’s still dark outside. Rising before the sun just makes me not only grumpy, but squinty face grumpy as I blindly shield my eyes against the burning brightness radiating from the kitchen lighting. Asha and Andrew are already up and annoyingly non-squinty eyed and chirpy.

I’m also a routine kind of person. I find comfort and calmness in doing certain tasks at certain times or on certain days. While I’m completely negotiable on what day I do my laundry or groceries, my morning routine is my sacred time and I won’t change it for anything, even my eager, beautiful fur baby.

I like my morning routine. It gives me time to wake up, enjoy a cup of tea, sort out my plans for the day, read or journal and ultimately, prepare myself to ‘adult’ for the next 14 hours or so. This ritual can take 30-60 mins, depending on how mushy my brain feels. But if everyone could see the before and after shots they would hastily agree the time was well spent.

Asha knows the drill and sits by my side while I get myself together, all the while nudging my hand for endless pats and reassurances of how wonderful she is. She is so needy. If she thinks I’m spending too much time writing or reading, she will put her head in my lap to remind me she’s still there and that we have something very important that needs to be done.

I put it off for as long as possible but eventually get changed for our morning walk.

The moment I put on my shoes, Asha knows we are about to head out and all hell breaks loose. There is jumping, her silly talking/grunting, licking, running in circles and basically a free for all. I make her sit quietly while I put on her lead and she visibly shakes with excitement. I’m not as excited.

Once we head out our only constraint is time. If I’m working I need to be home by 7am to get ready but if not, we have all the time in the world. It’s agreed we both need a good morning walk; firstly to pep me up and secondly to calm her down. I’ve found the sweet spot is about 60 minutes.

There are several dedicated routes we choose for both variety and distance. Depending on what time it is when we eventually head out, the choice is based on nothing more than where I feel like going on that particular morning. If I’m not working I usually let Asha choose, which is never a surprise because it’s the same route every time. She will always make a beeline straight towards the water and depending on the tide, try and coax me into a walk along the sand.

Being winter at the moment, the first 15 mins are usually filled with me cursing the cold and trying to wrangle an out of control dog while keeping my hands firmly wedged in the pockets of my jacket. Not resume worthy but I’m proud of my achievement nonetheless.

Asha is oblivious to the cold and has her head down, busying herself looking for the perfect patch of grass in order to start the day off just right. If I’m lucky she does it quickly and I can put it in the bin along they way, too late and I get to carry it all the way back home.

Once we’re off we set a good pace. I like to call it walking with purpose. Not too fast and not too slow. Just enough to get the heart pumping and the legs working. In 60 minutes we normally do 5-6kms and my legs are beginning to tire.

Despite the slow start to the morning, it doesn’t take long for me to enjoy being outside. There is light on the horizon and there’s nothing better than greeting the sun when it begins to dawn. The air is cold but being South East Queensland, it isn’t unbearable. Anything under 10 degrees Celsius is water-cooler-talkworthy. Anything under 8 degrees Celsius is on another level and we begin prepping for Arctic Armageddon. We’ve had a few dicey moments but we are all thankfully still here.

Even in the cold and dark there are always other people out and about. I enjoy seeing familiar faces each morning and greeting everyone who passes. Even those who don’t return my “good morning” can’t destroy my good mood. They are obviously camp grumpy and still need a little more time.

Asha, on the other hand, has no interest in saying good morning to other furry friends along the way. She spends most of the time with her nose to the ground sniffing every scent on every tree, path, fence, rock or blade of grass. It’s like social media for dogs and she is crackhead addicted. I’m still deciding if the act of peeing on top of the scent is a ’thumbs up’ or a ‘thumbs down’.

So while I start out less than conversational in the morning, by the end of my walk I am awake, happy and ready to tackle the day, wondering why I don’t look forward to this each day.

I’m far from perfect and don’t always get out every day but I’m learning to give myself some grace when I don’t. The old me would always throw up my hands in defeat and berate myself for not being able to stick to the plan.

Nowdays I’m kinder to myself and understand I’m a continual work in progress. If I miss a day or two then I simply tell myself “tomorrow is a new day” and begin again because the benefits of my morning walk are so good for not only my physical health but my mental wellbeing as well.

So Jo, tomorrow is a new day, grumpy face and all.

Until next time,

Do you have a morning routine? How do you start your day and better still are you in team grumpy or team happy? Thank you for reading.