I'm a morning person. I'm sharpest in the "wee small hours of the morning..." as the song goes. So aging agrees with me. While my friends complain that now that they're older, they're waking up at 4 and 5 a.m. and don't know what to do, I revel in this pattern that allows me to get a jump on the world. Because I work and live on the West Coast, I can start calling people on the East Coast at 5 a.m. and astound them that I'm up and at 'em so early. I can get in that morning walk before work with no effort, and on winter mornings it's enthralling to see the moon just before dawn.

I do most of my writing at 6 a.m. while watching the dawn break over Angel Island. (I live in Sausalito...heaven on earth.) It's peaceful in the morning, and the feeling of a new beginning is evident with the rising sun. It's a time to make lists of things to do and people to call.

Television is our modern-day gift to the morning as well. We can tune in to the world, learn what happened as we slept, do some exercise or yoga directed by some distant instructor. We can read that home-delivered paper in peace without constant interruption from children. The joy of maturity is especially sweet for those who had to put themselves second to others all their lives and who now can breathe the air of freedom and turn the focus on themselves. We are the lucky ones. Because we have reached the upper years intact, we can experience a sense of survival and gratitude.

Just as the morning allows us to start each day anew and do an inventory of our lives, maturity invites us to savor the day in the light of our personal experience. Each of us has a story, complex and vivid. What we need now is to maintain a sense of purpose for each day of our lives and to extract the best from the simple things. A new beginning.

Rather than lie in bed and try painfully to go back to sleep, get up and go. Resist the temptation to be comfortable or to give in to the belief that now that you're older you should take it easy. Unless your doctor has ordered this, chances are that your physical health, your mental health, and your relationships with people will benefit from your get-up-and-go. You'll feel better about yourself, and people will be drawn to you because people love to see people who are older than they are enjoying life. Everyone is looking for heroes, for examples of aging that they can aspire to. Why don't you get up tomorrow morning and become a hero for someone?

ELDR Editors' Note: Leda has published a book of essays called, "Look for the Moon in the Morning." To learn more about Leda Sanford you can visit her website, ledasanford.com.

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posted at 05:30:01 PM