The settled routine of my mornings begins when I arise between three and four o’clock. First come the blood glucose measurement (under control and improving), a blood pressure measurement (ditto), and taking my temperature (elevated temperature is the only indicator of kidney infection, and, since I have but one functioning kidney, it’s important to watch). Then I drink a bottle of water, kiss my dear wife, make sure the cats have water, and work out with weights. The tickler file* is next and sketching out the day in my Moleskine notebook.
With a cup of coffee I sit down and read the Bible. This usually leads me to pray. Then I read from something about prayer, currently “A Classic Collection on Prayer”, which leads to more prayer. Then I read about the geography and demographics of a country on this planet, including a list of challenges to prayer, from “Operation World,” which, of course, leads to much prayer. Today it was Côte d’Ivoire.
Next come my daily reads:
The Inklings Handbook by Colon Duriez and David Porter
All My Days Before Me (the pre-conversion diary of C.S. Lewis)
Bill Bryson’s Dictionary of Troubling Words
The Writer’s Devotional by Amy Peters
Then I go to my writing studio, at the back of the house overlooking the pond and wildlife area, and write. Afterward I feed the fish and make a breakfast which I eat outside by the pond and the singing birds.
The early morning ends with some work on Spanish and iOS coding.
Every day. The same. It works.
*A Tickler File is something I’ve used for forty years. It consists of thirty one file folders in a drawer, one for each day of the month. Behind these are twelve monthly folders. Whenever I have a task or appointment for the future, I just drop it into the folder for that day or month, forget it, and know it will be there when the date arrives.