Every productivity book in the world says I’m wrong for loving slow mornings.  I can’t resist a cup of coffee, staring out the window with my journal on my lap, and my Bible or a good book, and taking in the day.  Yes, I know one can have a “quiet time in just 7 minutes!” and there were certainly seasons in my life as a young mother – the baby’s crying and my toddler just emptied cereal on the floor – when “just 7 minutes” was impossible.  You know that young children have Mama Radar and no matter how quiet you are, there is no such thing as getting up before they do.  They find you out!  So that seldom happened either.  Now with  just one teenager at home and fewer demands on the morning, slow mornings happen more often, but I still feel guilty about “wasting the best hours of the day” according to the time management gurus.

Except for today.  Today, a rare snowstorm happened in our area.  People are urged to stay in.  Schools are cancelled, many businesses are closed.  The whole world is slowed down for today.  I can have my slow morning without guilt.  I love it!

Slow mornings are my creative time.  My processing-thoughts-time. Morning is when I do my best writing, when the creative ideas for a new video series happen, or a solution for a problem comes,  and a time for processing the log jam of thoughts and emotions from life and busy-ness.  I did not get the early riser gene, and so when I have a slow morning it can be 11:00 am before I get moving on my eternal to-do list.  Totally not “Miracle Morning” material.

I’m an ADD person ( for real ) and us ADDers don’t do well with tight schedules.  I have friends who can do their morning journaling for 10 minutes, then work out for 30 minutes, shower and get ready for the day before the kids get up, but that is not me.  Never was.  I used to be riddled with guilt for that, especially when I had 5 children at home and we needed to start on lessons before Noon.  Maybe if I had embraced morning me-time and allowed myself to have more slow mornings and incorporated them, we all would have had more joy.   An evening me-time or taking me-time during the children’s naps was okay, but never the same as morning.  As I look back now I wonder if I had allowed myself to schedule morning me-time, I could have picked up the pace on the other days instead of resisting them.  Instead I was following the “rules” about morning.

As I’m writing this, I’m releasing any guilt or “should do – or do nots” about slower mornings.   For YEARS I felt guilty (except on snow days or holidays) because I craved slow mornings.  False guilt is a soul and energy stealer. I’ve been able to create a lifestyle that does not require that I rush out the door by 8 AM every morning.  I don’t have a commute. My children are largely grown now, and there is no one to spill cereal on the floor or get into my makeup when I’m not looking.  The kitchen can actually stay clean a little.  I’m enjoying slow mornings more often.

Do you love slow mornings too? Is that your best “me-time”?  Here’s my encouragement to you: find a way to have slow mornings more frequently.  It certainly doesn’t have to be every day, and that isn’t possible for most of us. What if you knew that you had one day per week when your morning was slower – allowing you to have precious morning me-time even if you are not an early riser?  If morning time is your best me-time,  get rid of the productivity to-do-list-guilt about morning.  Allow yourself to take what you need morning wise, and I guarantee you that you will be able to give better to your family and enjoy your life more! Even if it’s not a snow day.

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