It's 9AM

What Are You Listening To?

Late nights and early mornings don’t often mix well.

And it’s funny how I define late now.

Early is easy.

Waking up every hour to stare at the digital numbers reflected on the ceiling from the clock on the nightstand.

Every hour because my alarm is set for 5, but this week and next, I need to be up at 4.

Extra hours for extra long days, and I can set an internal alarm for pretty close to any time.

So long as I’m in bed by 9.

After 9, and my body starts to do it’s own thing.

Like sleep in, past my self designated wake up time.

Or wake up to double check I’m not sleeping in.

I’ve talked about why I like so early in the AM.

It’s quiet, except for the crickets, and the birds losing their mind at first hint of light.

And I get more done, or some done, if not more, because it’s never enough.

The ticking time bomb of “gotta get gone” is always present.

But last night, I had ice cream.

I cut out from work at noon, so I could race home and pick up #10, grab a couple of cheeseburgers from Mcdonald’s and race thirty minutes up to Conway.

He was picking up with a team for a World Series event, and for the first time in his young baseball career of over 5 years, he was playing with his own age group.

We have played up, which makes him 11 with a bunch of 12 year olds, but this weekend, they’re all the same age.

The games were spaced at 2 and 6 and although it was hot, there was a good solid breeze that kept it from being miserable.

I mean, the humidity was still thick and cloying and clinging, but at least the breeze pushed it all around, like stirring a soup.

We won both, and got a milestone.

His first ever grand slam over the fence.

It was a great moment for him, and we were invited to grab food with the team after.

A tradition.

But…

It put us done with Conway at 8:30, and my 30 minute drive home had me thinking about what needed to be done before getting to bed.

We were in two cars, so I got to get some alone time and plan it out.

Windows down on the Interstate, rapidly cooling night flowing across my sweat thick hair and the music up loud.

I learned something about music yesterday, because every day should be a learning day.

Music can have the same affect on reducing stress as medication.

Listening to music you enjoy lowers stress hormones and releases dopamine, and studies from a medical place in Maryland (I didn’t catch that part, some hospital, but Google is your friend) showed that it was as effective as medicine.

Which reminds me to remind you.

The “system” is designed to feed you artificial stuff, when a lot of times you can take care of it “naturally.”

I’ve talked about the power of aspirin, which would be regulated and sold for a lot more profit if they could today.

I bet they do, just under a name brand like Aspatol, or some other marketing catch phrase.

A lot of aches, and pains of the body can be eliminated by knocking sugar out of the diet.

A natural solution to a problem that’s common, but people get artificial solutions to fix.

By artificial, I mean chemical, or compounds mixed together and marketed.

And the marketing for a lot of drugs and other therapies is great.

People are convinced that the only solution is Viagra, or Preznozal or Opreum, or whatever name they came up with, and made a song about so it sticks in your head and you ask your Dr. about it.

Then, when you learn something as simple as listening to your favorite songs can do the same thing in your brain as the drugs, you don’t believe it.

Because it can’t be that simple.

Except…

It can be.

Like getting enough sleep.

And drinking water.

And eating clean, most of the time.

All these little simple things that may add up to a lot of good for you.

Good for me.

Because my body knows when I don’t get enough sleep and lets me go thirty minutes past my wake up time.

But there was laundry that needed doing, there was the prep for the early AM, and the nightly ablations of shower, brush teeth, and lay out clothes for tomorrow.

I have to lay out my clothes because everything is done in half light so I don’t disturb the rest of the house.

And then I lay there.

Thinking and praying gratitude.

For moments, like grand slams and good drives and most of all, being safe.

And music, which I think works the way the science suggests, but I want you to test it too.

It’s too early to take the old records off the shelf, and still dark enough to think about night moves, even if I have to head out to drive soon.

Maybe some songs will take my mind off of it.

What are you listening to?

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