The Night Owl and the Day Job

By some strange twist of nature, I arrived on this planet an unrepentant night owl. Some of my harshest scoldings as a child came because my mother would get up at 2am to go to the bathroom and find me huddled in the hallway, reading by the nightlight. I was eight.

An accurate picture of me before 7am

As a teen, I struggled to get up and ready for school, but my father could come in at 3am from one of his over-the-road runs and find me excited about some art film PBS had been airing after midnight. In college, I roomed with a morning diva, but we are great friends and managed not to kill each other.

Although I never quite forgave her for talking me into that one 8am class.

But it did sort of prepare me for life after university, when I got a day job. Then had a baby. Dogs and cats also tend to be morning people, and we had a few of those over the years.

But I still hate mornings. The older I get, the more so. Now I have health issues that require about a two-hour prep time before I can leave the house. That means that to get to work on time requires getting out of bed between 5 and 6am.

For morning folks, this is easy. For me…not so much. And for anyone who thinks you can successfully reset that internal clock…that ONLY works if you NEVER STOP getting up early. As an example, I’ve been off for ten days. I didn’t set the clock. Within THREE DAYS, I couldn’t get to sleep before midnight, and I didn’t wake before seven.

What’s even worse for me is that my brain doesn’t really function the first three to four hours after I wake up. Creativity is a bust. When left to my own schedule, my most productive hours are between 3pm and midnight. Forcing productivity into a different routine eventually scrambles the mechanism.

But as all night owls out there know, you find ways to cope, to adjust, to adapt to that required routine. For me, one way that works well is to spend time in the dark, looking up at the sky, talking to God. The night is solace and renewal. I let it—and Him—surround and calm me.

And it’s the Lord who gives me the strength every day to head out to the work I love and the opportunities He’s provided, no matter how grouchy I am.