I am not a not a morning person or a night owl but mornings have always been a special time of coffee and reflection (and yes- I started drinking coffee when I was 8 yrs old so ALWAYS isn’t that much of a stretch here).

When I was much younger, I lived in California. In a house that faced the mountains. We could sit and watch the sun change the color of the sky and the mountains and eventually peek over the peaks. Because we lived in an arid climate, there was a coolness to the mornings. A stillness.

When I moved to San Diego after college, I was the only one of my roommates who was awake and still in the house between 6am and 7am each day (And when I lived with 6 boys, this was a magical quiet time). Later, I moved to the east coast. Starting in Virginia, in ancient colonial Williamsburg. Here I had an amazing balcony that but you in the canopy of one of the oldest and tallest magnolia trees I have ever seen. In the spring, when the tree was flowering, it was the best time to sit on the porch in the morning and breath in the (allergens… I mean) fragrance. My favorite thing to do on a Sunday was to drive into to town, get a coffee, an apple fritter, and a New York Times and then bring them back to the balcony for a quiet morning with my favorite canine pal.

Then I moved to North Carolina. I am not going to romanticize my mornings there. In the summer, they were murder. It never cooled off so the mornings were just as hot and sticky as the evenings… That being said, my field work usually had me in Colorado during the worst parts of the summer. Colorado was something really special. Scoring butterfly flight initiation on the top of a mountain means you have to be up, dressed, and have hiked up the 300m/2 miles BEFORE anything starts moving. To that end, I spent 3 weeks one summer hiking before dawn. Experiencing the chill of the morning. Watching as the sun rose over the mountains in one direction but also having a panoramic view of the entire range. It honestly took my breath away (both literally and figuratively- those hikes were hard). There was only really really bad instant coffee available for those mornings but somehow that didn’t really matter.

Now I am in Denmark. For the first time in my life with my dog, we go on proper walks every day. I think it is something we both enjoy a great deal. She is also usually kind enough to let me have my first cup of coffee before we embark. This week, I have been reflecting on how amazing mornings in our park are. It is a great place to think or to completely empty your mind. There are plants from all over the world (sometimes, when I am homesick, I visit the North American plants). There are beautiful trees and flowers that seem to change weekly. It is the closest I have come to those mornings in Colorado (without having to climb 300m).