You wake up.
Open your eyes.
Sensing the sun will rise soon.
You feel warm and cozy in your bed,
But feel drawn to witness the sunrise this morning.
So you get out of bed.
Take a few steps towards the sliding glass doors and lift the blinds to reveal a deep blue sky with some scattered stars still twinkling.
And a concentration of deep orange low to the ground behind the bare trees lining the far perimeter of the frosty meadow that stretches before you.
You walk into the kitchen appreciating the radiant heat coming through the hardwood floor and walk to the electric kettle.
Fill it with some water.
Push down the lever and watch the sky gradually lighten as the water begins to heat and come to a boil.
You notice the stars have faded by now and the deep dark blue has lightened into a softer baby blue with a wide band of pastel pink stretching across the sky as if radiating from the low orange glow.
You choose a mug for your tea,
Noticing the colors and the shape you're drawn to this morning.
You pour the boiling water into the mug and select the tea blend that feels just right.
You pick up the mug of tea and bring it with you back to the sliding glass doors where you sit on a cushion or in a chair and notice the sky continuing to lighten.
Now there is more pink in the sky and just a band of the soft blue.
Bands of color emanate as rays from the orange light on the horizon that is becoming a little more rosy in hue.
There's a very wide,
Very pale orange band of color extending closest to the ground.
Above that is a thinner band of blue and above that a gradation of rose into violet becoming a very light blue on the other side of the orange glow.
A few low clouds behind the trees glow especially bright as if lit from within.
The orange glow fades into a less saturated rose gold hue as the colors in the sky continue to lighten slowly,
Silently on this frosty winter morning.
You are grateful to be comfortable inside a warm cottage with lots of windows and your cup of fragrant tea.
The color of the tea water deepens as it steeps.
Mindfully,
You bring the cup of tea up to your nose and inhale the delicious fragrance.
As you wait for the tea to cool to a drinkable temperature,
You take a moment to ask yourself what quality or maybe reminder do I want to resource me today?
What is my heart most in need of?
As you hold the mug of tea in your hands,
You imagine that quality or reminder infusing the tea.
Your hands feel warm cupped around the mug as the sky brightens into more blue than pink or orange.
You bring the cup up to your nose again and inhale the fragrance deeply,
Imagining you are also inhaling the quality you chose to infuse the tea with.
You take several slow inhalations of the fragrance and notice the sky is continuing to lighten and the only traces remaining of rose or tangerine are low to the ground behind the trees.
The rest of the sky is a gradation of blue.
Hearer to the ground a powdery baby blue emerges from a gradation of tangerine rose settling into the blue and then becoming a very subtle suggestion of indigo higher up.
You take in the color of the tea water which has deepened and developed even more and then you gently touch the cup to your lips and receive a first taste of the delicious hot tea.
As you swallow the tea you imagine your body and your whole being filling with the chosen quality or reminder,
Warming you from the inside with this quality that will resource your day.
Between slow sips the mug remains in your hands,
Warming your hands.
Occasionally you might place it at your heart,
Warming your chest as well.
Slowly smelling and tasting the fragrant tea,
Filling up with the quality you most need today as the sunrise sky continues to develop like an old polaroid picture.
The tangerine glow on the horizon is brighter,
More fiery and you notice a sliver of bright light like a distant campfire glowing on the ground.
The sun is making its way above the horizon in its fiery glory and this is where you place your attention now and you notice how swiftly the sun moves,
Growing bigger with every breath you take.
It is now more than halfway above the horizon.
You keep your eyes fixated on this vivid orange light while sipping your tea and feeling the warmth inside you and on your hands,
Filling with the quality that will fuel your day from the inside out.
You continue to sip your tea as the sun slowly climbs the bare trees in the distance.
This light becoming too bright to look at now.
So you close your eyes and sense the brightness of the sun through your eyelids like sunlight filtering through window shades or curtains.
You continue to sip your warm tea,
Still allowing yourself to fill with that quality with every swallow and inhaling it with every fragrant breath through your nose.
You open your eyes and notice sparkling points of light on the snow outside,
Which is reflecting the deep blue of the clear sky stretching all around you,
Visible through every window,
A beautiful proper sky blue.
The meadow is sparkling and painted with golden sunlight and shadows of plants and trees.
It's the magical time of day when the world is bathed in golden light.
A bird flies across the sky,
Beating its wings,
And you watch it pass through your field of vision until it's out of sight.
And you return to the warmth of the mug in your hands,
The taste of the tea,
The fragrance,
And the sparkles on the snow.
Another bird,
Or possibly the same one,
Flies across the sky in the opposite direction.
And again,
You watch it fly and let it go as it exits your visual field.
Your mug of tea is now empty,
So you sit,
Noticing the birds that are now awake and going about their usual business,
Taking in the movement of the birds with curiosity,
Interest,
Friendliness,
Perhaps even wonder.
You sit and breathe with a clear blue sky and golden light of the rising sun growing ever brighter.
Sitting in silence,
Noticing what crosses the sky from time to time,
Whether it's birds or thoughts,
And noticing with curiosity and interest,
But without getting attached to or resisting whatever arises in your field of awareness.
Moving quietly for a few minutes in silence,
Bringing attention back again and again to the light filtering through your eyelids,
The warmth of the sunlight on your face or the temperature of the air on your skin,
Your body sitting here,
Breathing with it all.
Noticing where your mind is.
And bringing it back to a sensory door,
Noticing the sensations in the eyelids,
The skin,
The face,
The body breathing,
The sounds in your environment.
And eurozone.
Shepherding the mind back again and again when it's wandered off.
Shepherding the mind back again and again when it's wandered off.
And when you feel ready,
Stretching,
And walking into your day.
