16 Comments
User's avatar
Linda Stoll's avatar

I love this, Cathy. Rising early is not a usual habit, but when I do, there can be lovely invitations when starting the day early ...

Expand full comment
Jody L. Collins's avatar

Cathy this is positively beautiful--thank you!

Expand full comment
Donna Schmidt's avatar

Thanks for letting me in on your writing endeavors, I feel like you surely must be a "kindred spirit"

I love the way I can be in the moment with you, and it all makes me feel like God's in His heaven, alls right with my world, even tho the "mother's work" is ever present, and the devil says I can't do it all,

I have the same God inspired love of beauty, thanks for reminding me to feel all five senses, and...

Keep writing!

Expand full comment
Laura Toews's avatar

Gorgeousness.

Tell me more about the RICO method!!

Expand full comment
Catherine Koehn's avatar

Thank you for sharing. I really enjoyed it. Morning are a beautiful time of the day. If we can get up early enough to have time for the morning!

Expand full comment
MaryAnne's avatar

I also loved the way you wrote about self care and spiritual rest. What a beautiful way to start the day!

Expand full comment
L. Adams's avatar

I loved how you defined rest and self-care—really the way John Mark Cormer writes about it. I too, love to sit in the mornings and write a page to God and meditate on him and his creation.

& so many beautiful metaphors. I could stitch all of them into a blanket and wrap it around myself.

Expand full comment
Berniece Penner's avatar

I would leave a caution about the Rico method. Is it the Spirit of truth or does it delve into the New Age movement?

Expand full comment
Cathy's avatar

Upon further research, it would probably be more accurate to say the method we used was “mind mapping” —a diagram used to visually organize information, showing relationship to the pieces of the whole. For example: socks—ankles—mosquitoes.

Hopefully that clears up any misunderstanding!

Expand full comment
Jody L. Collins's avatar

Cathy, I'll jump in if I may. I'm a retired educator and taught writer's workshop and now writing professionally and I'll concur with your definition--people process information differently--sequentially and randomly. I have ALWAYS organized my thoughts in a web--main idea in the middle with spokes come out from there--every idea is interconnected with the whole. That model of organizing has served me well whether I'm noting my tasks for the day or a post or poem idea.

There is nothing 'new age' about it--God made us all to think and process differently--and this essay was lovely to read!

Expand full comment
Cathy's avatar

Not that I’m aware of? I found it to be similar to diagramming a sentence.

Expand full comment
AJD's avatar

Bring it on 😝

Expand full comment
Gina Martin's avatar

What a beautiful ode to morning and time with God. I live the way you define the difference between rest and self care.

I'd love to hear more about the Rico method.

Expand full comment
Tristan Dueck's avatar

This read so smoothly. What I joy to wake early. 🌞

I noticed you said you write “think pages.” How does this go for you? I spent about a month writing morning pages. Even though I enjoyed the process, it wasn’t a sustainable habit.

Also, I am very curious to learn about the Rico Method.

Expand full comment
Cathy's avatar

What a nice compliment. I don’t write “morning pages.” To be honest, I only have a hazy idea of what that actually is. 😅

The particular morning when I wrote these observations, I was simply trying to utilize the 5 senses in tandem with note-taking, in order to better describe an hour of the morning.

I do take notes during my Bible reading each morning though.

Expand full comment
Tristan Dueck's avatar

Fair enough about morning pages. They’re not for me anyway 😆.

Expand full comment