when waking

Renée Antrosio – August 5, 2025 2 Comments

How do your mornings begin? For much of our American lives, the alarm clock governs the beginning of each day, sounding the rush to get to work on time, get kids out the door, get with the program. Today is the first day of school for kindergartners in Nashville; what hopes and anxieties flood their little bodies? What thoughts race through their parents’ minds as they try to gather everything they need?

It is a privilege to wake before sunrise, when my body recognizes the opportunity to ease into the day without alarm. I have been learning What to Remember When Waking by David Whyte so that I will have it wherever I am. Memorization comes slowly at this point in life. Perhaps because there is no test for which to study, or that I want the words to sink deeper than the short-term memory which served me so well in school, but now have no recall of what I supposedly learned. 

To remember 
the other world
in this world
is to live in your
true inheritance. (D.W.)

Mornings can be hard, even as a “morning person.” Regrets from the day before, dread for the responsibilities ahead, things to be done are weights that I take up too quickly. To counterbalance those tendencies, I light a candle, listen to a morning meditation, sip my coffee, read poetry, enter into scripture and prayer. I practice breathing in possibility for the day ahead, breathing out gratitude for another day. I journal about the surprises of the day before, the possibilities that I hadn’t expected, recognizing God’s goodness in gratitude for blessings even during difficult days. Ron’s blogpost last week- focusing on the Holy Spirit’s presence, rather than striving to better ourselves- came to mind as I read the opening lines of Thirst by Mary Oliver. 

Another morning and I wake with thirst for the goodness I do not have. I walk out to the pond and all the way God has given us such beautiful lessons…. grant me, in your mercy, a little more time. Love for the earth and love for you are having such a long conversation in my heart. 

Yesterday, a hummingbird drank from the canna lilies in my yard. A goldfinch flitted from flower to flower. When I can, I remind myself not to rush, that with God, there is an abundance of time. I am not sure how that squares with our finite time on this earth; maybe that is one of those dynamic tensions. Perhaps that is why we need poetry.

Who knows what will finally happen or where I will be sent, yet already I have given a great many things away, expecting to be told to pack nothing, except the prayers which, with this thirst, I am slowly learning.

I have been praying, “Spirit, lead me. Spirit, guide me.” I have been reminding myself that Jesus said his yoke was easy, and his burden light. I listen to Richard Rohr:

When you cannot enjoy the lilies of the field or the sparrows in the sky, don’t waste time thinking you can enjoy God or respect people at any depth…. History tells of too many people who have tried to be spiritual before they have learned how to be human!… Maybe this is why Jesus came to model humanity for us- much more than divinity. Once we get the simplest human parts down (stop slamming doors and start loving rocks), God will most assuredly take it all from there. (Yes, And… p. 148)

Today, may there be a long conversation of love for the earth and love for God in our hearts and minds. May we live in our true inheritance. May the prayers we are learning be what we carry, laying down our baggage, and taking up the lightness of Jesus’ yoke.  –Renée