GOOD MORNING!!!!!!

5:15am.

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK on our bedroom door.

Morgan: "MOM! DAD! I NEED TO TELL YOU SOMETHING."

I was in a comatose state of sleep. All I can remember was that she thought something was funny and wanted to share it. She's SO like her daddy. Loves funny stories. Loves to be social. Doesn't heed the normal hours of "talking".

I grew up with basic rules of morning conversation. It was never written, but it was heeded. It went something like this:
- When greeting someone in the morning, do so gently and quietly. A simple "Good morning" will suffice.
- Do not engage is deep, detailed or aggressive conversation for 30 minutes.
- Avoid eye contact.
- If you must engage in conversation, gently crescendo to heavy news. Do not talk loudly, quickly or in too detailed of a way.
- Most importantly: If you sense that a person you wish to speak to is not ready to engage in talk, retreat. Recall that butterflies which are forced out of their cocoon by others do not live. Therefore, do not force people out of their morning cocoon or you'll get a mean caterpillar.

My husband and daughter subscribe to other morning routines. It goes something like this:
- Get up
- Plunge headfirst into day
- Do not stop until bedtime

Regarding my initial story: I did tell Dan this weekend that I wanted to get up earlier and have a quiet time together before the day started. I wanted us to have some time of prayer and talking. Quiet talking. I pictured those gentle photos of a couple enjoying some coffee in bed as the sun rises. I pictured smiles and laughing.

I hadn't anticipated a dawn-social 4 year old who had napped a tad long the day before and had somehow banked enough sleep that she could wake up pre-sun. There was no way to get her back to bed. So Dan read stories to her. In our bed. I spent the time examining the back of my eyelids while I listened in a horizontal fashion. I longed for a "volume" control on my daughter.

But... and this is a big but... I'm really glad that Morgan loves mornings. And I'm really glad that I have a husband who can take a dawn shift of reading stories. And even though I can't remember one iota of this morning's happenings, I could feel the presence of my two wonderful (and morning-etiquetteless) family members. One day, Dan and I will be an old couple in a quiet creaky house and there will be no 5 am wake-up calls.

Meanwhile, farewell quiet mornings. I'll see you in 50 years.