What A Way To Begin The Day!

By Mesha Oh

He had finished his morning prayers and was sipping his coffee when his mind travelled to his younger days. He thought about how different getting up in the mornings had been for him back then.

When he was at school, for many years his mornings had followed a rigid, unchanging pattern. He would have to be up at 6 a.m., and then he would hurriedly set about getting ready. Since he shared a single bathroom with his two siblings, this was something like running a race, because they too would be up at the same time. Going to the toilet, having a bath, and putting on his school uniform—all of these tasks had to be finished in about 15 minutes. After this, he would quickly gobble down his breakfast and run out of the house, barely getting a breath to say goodbye to his parents. The driver would swing open the door of the car and he would rush inside. Then, they would head off to his school, some ten kilometers away, zooming at top speed.

That, basically, was how he began his mornings, almost every single day, year after year, until he finally finished school.

He shuddered in disgust as he relived that experience in his mind. The frenzy to get ready to arrive at school on time (if a child was late, he would be sternly punished by the school authorities)—what awful damage it had probably done to many children, he thought. Fear, worry, tension, stress, agitation, being constantly driven—these were some of the things that this mad rush had forced on him, till these came to be seen as ‘normal’, an integral part of life.

When he went on to college, his early mornings were, thankfully, a little less hurried, because he stayed in the hostel, which was located in the college campus. But the basic pattern remained the same: drag yourself out of bed against your will, freshen up, quickly get over with breakfast and head off to morning assembly and then class.

Later in life, when he began working for a living, waking up to a new morning followed a different pattern. He was fortunate that his job (which he loved) allowed him considerable flexibility, and more often than not, he could work from home. And so, he could get up any time he wished. Generally, it would be around 8:30, but sometimes it could even be well past 10. The first thing he would do on waking up would be to reach out for a cigarette. Then, after a while, he’d crawl out of his bed, make some coffee for himself and head for the toilet, taking the coffee and the morning’s newspaper along with him. He’d sit on the loo till he had done with the newspaper and finished his coffee. After that, he’d have a shower, change and be ready for the day.

But how different things were now, though, he mused. He had brought the God dimension into his mornings and a certain discipline—and what a lovely difference these all had made! For around three years now, he had been getting up just before 5 am. Then, after freshening up, he spent a little more than half an hour chatting with God—for him, this was now the highpoint of his day. After this, he would do some light physical exercises, and then sit down to have his morning coffee (minus the cigarette—he quit the smoking habit some years ago) and prepare his to-do list for the day.

What a wonderful way to begin the day, he thought, smiling at himself!