Saturday, September 1, 2012

Morning Wanderings

This morning I helped my friend move apartments.... at 7 AM. While 6:15 in the morning wasn't an ideal wake up call on a Saturday, I was able to experience (even if briefly, it's a short walk) one of my favorite feelings - the calm quiet of a city just before it wakes up. I was the only person walking on my particular street, though there was one man sitting on the front step of a restaurant entrance across the way. The final remnants of the sunrise were still visible, barely evident but for the pinky-peach hue lingering in the sky. There were no cars on the road, at all.

When I travel, I make it a point to get up early at least one day and roam the city to watch it rise. I never really think to do it here at home, oddly enough. I genuinely love the movement and noise of a big city. It's why I live here, and why they're my favorite destinations to visit. Still, the contrast of the deserted early morning lies somewhere between almost eery and strangely calming. It's so contradictory to the normal environment that it seems to open up my brain. I walk through an empty city in the morning, and I feel more creative, inspired, intuitive, inwardly peaceful.

As autumn approaches, it gets easier to allow myself this luxury. The sun comes up later, which tends to put fewer people on the streets early. It gives me the chance to not wake up quite so early but still enjoy my lone morning walk as the city stretches awake. I think I will have to do this more often to see the effect on my muse and my imagination.

Do you have any unexpected sources of inspiration? 

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