Believe it or not, I love getting up early in the morning to get work done. Hard to believe these days with my abhorrent reaction to alarm clocks, but there was a time even in recent memory where I would get up at the wee hours of the morning to start my day. There’s a tranquility to the house when you know everyone else is tucked away in their beds, soundly asleep, and it’s just you the silence brought on by stillness. It’s a wonderful time to brew some coffee and crank out some words, knowing that in a little bit your solitude will be invaded by cereal bowls and the sniping of three girls growing up.
Today, though, was the stillness of silence. The girls stayed the night at their grandparents, a wonderful and rare gift that the Wife and I really don’t know how to handle. I’ve mentioned before that babysitters and night’s out occur annually, sometimes biannual, but are never something to be counted on or anticipated in our lives. After all of the girls spent the day with the Girl Scouts in Busch Gardens yesterday, the Wife came home (exhausted and sunburned) alone. Not wanting to miss the opportunity, we went out to dinner, but that was the extent of our exciting plans. We came home and I caught up on the first episode of the new rendition of Primeval (New World – not bad, much of the feel the original British show had in it’s earlier days), then discovered that the Avengers was available on Amazon Prime streaming for free. Then I passed out.
But waking up this morning was hard. Even when they’re asleep, there’s a sense of presence in the house. Maybe it’s the faint snores of Youngest, or the ninja-like shadow hopping of the Middle Daughter, but you can feel them, in the back of your mind, present and accounted for. In that time when the air conditioner is quiet and all you have is the loud, clacking sound of a clock as its second-hand works its way around the dial two rooms away, you become aware of how still and empty the home is.
It’s in moments like this that I have to acknowledge again that I work best when I’m under duress, with the hustle and bustle of the children as my background noise that I’m trying to escape with my noise canceling headphones. If there’s nothing for the headphones to cancel, what’s the point? Growing up an only child, I find this a strange transition to have made.
Also, this house is way too quiet without the three of them to fill it. And the dog agrees.
[ Some brief clarification is in order – I am happy to have the time alone my Wife, and generally we do have an idea of something to do with these rare moments of stillness. I am just a pathetic softie at heart the rest of the time.]
