my manhattan morning

I wake up at 5am, naturally, every day. I blame Australia. When I lived in Queensland, the sun would rise around 4.30. I’ve always been an early riser… but anything before 5am is pretty unacceptable when it comes to crawling out of bed. Crawling into bed at 4.30am, on the other hand, is totally acceptable.

I love waking up to activity. I love being in a 24-hour world. During my brief Queens stint, the only people I passed during my strolls in the winter dawn darkness were unfortunate construction workers stuck with the task of working around the clock.

This morning, I walked outside a bit after 5 with Lily Peanut to the greeting of a lovely man who approached me with, “Hello, can you please tell me where House of Brews is? I just moved here from Pennsylvania…”

It’s on West 46th Street if you’re curious.

I then strolled up 9th Avenue to the voice of Rijn Collins. A woman who I am blessed to have as a sister and who is in so many of my fondest memories. They’re way ahead of us in Australia. As we open our eyes to welcome the day, it’s already winding down around there part of the planet.

I arrived at Central Park with my slowly healing little girl and watched her run extensive lengths, kiss other furry friends and beam my way.

On the way home, I bought a bouquet of flowers wrapped by a glowing young boy on the sidewalk before we exchanged “Have a wonderful day”s.

All before 6am.

Some start to a day blog tribe. These are all the reasons I dreamt of coming back.

Oh, and finishing those books of mine… I did a bit of that after our early adventure…

For the first time in my life, I actually feel home. The initial 12 months I spent back in town, I was still reeling from too much to settle. Now that I’m settled, all I want to do is write. I missed that feeling so much. I’m not writing to cope right now, I’m writing because it’s what I love.

Just like New York City. An absolute favorite.