Text and Photos by Henrylito D. Tacio
The period from sunrise to noon is called morning. Although there are no exact times when the morning begins, it usually ends at noon.
What most people don’t know is that the modern English words “morning” and “tomorrow” came from Middle English morwening, which developed into morwen, then morwe, and eventually morrow. Unlike some other languages, English has separate terms for “morning” and “tomorrow,” despite their common root.
“For some, the word morning may refer to the period immediately following waking up, irrespective of the current time of day,” Wikipedia states. “This modern sense of morning is due largely to the worldwide spread of electricity, and the independence from natural light sources.”
As for me, the morning starts by the time I wake up from bed. Generally, I don’t stand immediately. Instead, I sit in one corner of my bed and wait for some moments. Some doctors told me not to stand up right away after waking up, or else I may experience vertigo.
So that some moments are spent in prayer, before going to bed, I usually pray. So, when I wake up, I also pray. I thank God for protecting me while I was sleeping. In addition, praying that He will also protect me during the day when I will be working or going somewhere. In everything the Bible tells us, give thanks.
What’s your ritual when you wake in the morning? “Every morning, I wake up saying, ‘I’m still alive, a miracle,’” said Canadian actor Jim Carrey. “And so, I keep on pushing.” Japanese artist Yoko Ono suggests, “Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you’ll start to see a big difference in your life.”
Steve Jobs had the same ritual. “For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been, ‘No,’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something,” he said.
American actor Bruce Willis (of Die Hard series) wakes up laughing in the morning. “Yes, I wake up in the morning and there I am just laughing my head off,” he admits. Ernie Banks has a different view: “When I wake up in the morning, I feel like a billionaire without paying taxes.”
Award-winning film director Francis Ford Coppola (the man behind The Godfather trilogy) says he likes to work in the morning. “I like to sometimes go to a place where I’m alone where I’m not going to get a phone call early that hurts my feelings, because once my feelings are hurt, I’m dead in the water.”
Lemony Snicket considers morning as an important time of the day “because how you spend your morning can often tell you what kind of day you are going to have.” Richard Whately has the view: “Lose an hour in the morning, and you will spend all day looking for it.”
“Waking up early, connecting with nature, and having my quiet time are priorities to me,” said Danette May, “and they are non-negotiable.”
Whitney Johnson shares this thought: “Mornings are so precious because it’s when I’m most productive. For me, thirty minutes at 5:30 am is equivalent to at least an hour at 3:00 pm.”
“For many years, my morning routine was a result of how other people expected me to show up,” said Amber Rae. “I was overwhelmed and off-center because I was ignoring the messages my body was sending me.”
“Starting my day with exercise gives me a big mood and energy boost throughout the day and makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something right off the bat,” said Jake Knapp.
Monica Baldwin has this to say: “The moment when you first wake up in the morning is the most wonderful of the 24 hours. No matter how weary or dreary you may feel, you possess the certainty that, during the day that lies before you, absolutely anything may happen. And the fact that it practically always doesn’t, matters not a jot. The possibility is always there.”
There are those who wake up feeling being loved and to be with someone they love the most. “Let me wake up next to you, have coffee in the morning and wander through the city with your hand in mine, and I’ll be happy for the rest of my little life,” said Charlotte Eriksson.
“Morning without you is a dwindled dawn,” Emily Dickinson wrote.
Nicholas Sparks scribbled: “The best love is the kind that awakens the soul; that makes us reach for more, that plants the fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. That’s what I hope to give you forever.”
Finally, here’s a thought from two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks: “When the sun came up… I couldn’t tell where heaven stopped and the Earth began.”