I’ve been getting up very early in the morning lately. Does that make sense? Can one use early and lately in the same sentence? The English teacher in me should know that answer, but I don’t. But lately, I have been getting up very early. I’ve started a new job, and the workday can be a bit different than the traditional workday beginning at eight or nine a.m. and ending eight hours later with a lunch break mixed in.

I’m not talking five or six o’clock early, I am talking about three and four o’clock early. Maybe some of you are drinking your morning coffee before four a.m.? I was never that guy.

What I have discovered when I’m “on the job” at three thirty in the morning is that few other people are. But those I do see up and around at that time may be some of the most underappreciated people on the planet. I see police officers patrolling in their car, keeping the community safe while others sleep. I see clerks running registers at convenience stores, making coffee for people like me. I see trucks hauling products to restaurants, and department stores preparing them for the day before they open their doors for business. I see people who have started their workday hours before others are even awake, providing services for those who are still sleeping.

I was on a trip last week, and the person I was riding with made a simple comment that gave me some clarity in life. We had left our hotel at three a.m. and had been on the road for about four hours. He said, “We’re fixin to run into some daylight.”

The sun was just beginning to break the horizon, and it was nothing out of the ordinary, but for some reason when he said that it made me feel grateful. I was “fixin to run into some daylight” and be given another shot at living. He was not trying to be philosophical; he was just stating a fact. The sun is coming up and things will be easier to see.

You never know when you’ll be inspired by what someone else says. I’ve learned that inspiration that comes from others is when they are just being themselves.

I watched the sun climb over the edge of the earth through my windshield. It had been a while since I had taken the time to watch the sun come up. Honestly, I could not remember the last time I had done so.

I know people who are more grateful than me for each new day. They are dealing with circumstances in their life which make them cherish each sunrise they experience. Maybe you know someone like that?

Without trying to sound corny here, but there is something optimistic about new light splashing across the sky. It is a new day, and it truly is the first day of the rest of my life.

Sixteenth century poet Jeremy Taylor put it like this;

“Let your sleep be necessary and healthful, not idle and expensive of time beyond the needs and conveniences of nature; be curious sometimes to see the preparation the sun makes when it is coming forth from the chambers of the east.”

In one of my favorite movies, The Cowboys, John Wayne portrays Wil Anderson, a cattle rancher who is forced to hire schoolboys to help him drive cattle across challenging terrain. All the grown men had headed to California looking for gold. There is a scene where the trail cook, Mr. Nightlinger, wakes up the cowboys at three a.m. to start their day.

Wil Anderson rides in on his horse and asks, “Mr. Nightlinger, what’s for breakfast?

Mr. Nightlinger replies, “Apples, bacon, and biscuits.”

Spinning his horse around, Wil Anderson yells, “Forget the apples, slap some bacon on a biscuit and let’s go. We’re burning daylight.!

I am getting to know morning again, and it ain’t so bad. A lot of living goes on before the sun comes up.

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Todd Howey is a columnist for BrownwoodNews.com whose articles appear on Fridays. Email comments to [email protected].