My Morning Devotions
plus the freedom of weekends
I can revel in bed given the time and inclination, but this past week I became a morning person.
When we moved to a new house last year, I found myself sleeping lightly as I adjusted to new night noises, the darkness of a different space, a house that did not yet feel like home. I found myself awake before the rest of my family—a definite rarity for me—and wandered to our living room where the front picture window gave a yawning display of the streetlights and pinked dawn, no curtain yet to hem the room in.
I sipped my tea and sent my thoughts out through the picture windows, slowly settling in the morning light. I soon resumed my regular sleep patterns but the living room has always felt cozier due to those memories.
So far this year, my greatest desire has been to act from a place of grounding and calm, to find and create peace within my home so I can draw from them that source whatever the day might bring. But days are full, especially in this season, and I often tumble out of bed and fall into the franticness of morning preparations, the doom of the scroll when I check the phone too soon after waking, the regular rhythms that claim the day if I don’t first set them for myself. The calm I’ve craved has been harder to come by, and it’s felt too easy to live in a reactive state. Too many mornings I’ve rushed past the living room, the shades still drawn, no time for settling into the day.
So this past week, I set my alarm for 6am and padded to the couch to make friends with the morning view outside of my picture window once again. It immediately felt like a time of devotion. With no expectation yet upon me I’ve felt free.
I’ve started up my morning pages once again, I dip into Mary Oliver’s Devotions and Sarah Ban Breathnach’s Simple Abundance, and my own devotions are starting to take shape.
For a few of those mornings, my 10-year-old joined me, and that has been the greatest gift of all as we cozy up under a shared blanket needing nothing from one another but companionship.
There is nothing that must happen within this morning space for me; I’m not regimenting out the minutes—instead just letting the time be marked by slow sips of tea, whatever conversation comes naturally between me and my daughter, quiet words read or written upon a page.
And then there are the weekends. The alarm is not set and I linger as I will in bed, its own luxury. Weekend mornings can stretch and expand, as little planned in advance as possible—art supplies and collage scraps littering the desk, waiting for whenever the sun hits just right and I sit down to the page once more.
I enjoy this tension and marking the weekdays and weekend for their own structures; it feels the things I’m marking my day with—the magic morning, the daily sketchbook practice, and a bit of yoga—small luxuries that enrich each day, without dread or expectation. Possibilities in the margins.
I’m sending this out to you just after the weekend, well-rested and having risen early once again. Here’s to the week ahead—may we all find ways to reclaim our own peace and send a bit of it outward. ✨
Art made this week: Lots of daily sketching!
Books read this week: Listened to What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast by Laura Vanderkam (in addition to my devotions noted above and some fiction).
Morning Pages: Most days this past week! Very messy and not very legible, which i just fine with me.
Daily rituals: I’ve introduced yoga again and I’m loving it.
Gearing up for: Immersion with Bonnie Christine—I joined as a student in 2020, and now I work on the other side helping develop and support the curriculum, getting nerdy with worksheets, and supporting this special community. The link above is my partner link and will tell you more if you’re interested in learning surface pattern design and building a business with your art. There’s also an encore webinar of the Art of Business workshop today!