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To keep from boredom in my day to day living, I change my morning routine once a month. I am a man of structure.
            My alarm goes off at 0500. It’s a peaceful sound that doesn’t too suddenly shake my nerves awake, so I stay there on my side for a moment and run through what I am going to do after I sit up. Only a sliver of light peeks from behind the black curtains. I stretch my toes out, and test the air outside of the comforter. I take a final deep breath and place my toes on the carpet. I sit nude in the full length mirror that’s screwed into the wall, smirking at the condition my hair is in.

After I shower, it’s a wet mop. My bangs reach below my bottom eye lashes, the sides are just above my earlobes. The lights are off in the bathroom as well. I can make out only the outline of my body as I stand in the mirror here.  I close my eyes and take a deep breath, pulling it as far into my belly button as I can, pause, and breathe out as slowly as possible. I take note of every drop crawling down my skin, the pull of gravity forcing it toward the cold tile floor beneath me.

No matter what my morning routine consists of, it is always meditative. If I spend my first moments with anything too far outside of my tangible surroundings, I find myself lost outside of myself for the rest of the day. It isn’t simple. It’s actually quite difficult. And that’s why I cannot be complacent. And that requires change.

Yesterday, my morning started out with a different sounding alarm, slipping on my running shoes, and taking off into the backyard for fourteen acres. Just as in the mirror today, I jogged until the sun had just begun to expose itself over the mountainous horizon. I never over exerted myself. I simply love the rhythmic stretch of my legs in time with the expansion of my lungs.

I pulled my mind back several times from inevitable distraction, and took one last mental scan of my body. Satisfied that there is no new sensation left to take note of, I reach for a towel and turn on the light.

My name is David.