2 more reasons to get up in the morning

Is anybody else digging the fall sunrises? The glorious orange light in the tops of the glorious orange trees is worth waking in the cold darkness.

Writing time is another reason to get up early. Here's some advice from Eisa Nefertari Ulen, television, magazine and journal writer, author of the novel Spirit's Returning Eye taken from the book Free Within Ourselves: Fiction Lessons for Black Authors by Jewell Parker Rhodes:

Rise an hour earlier than usual. Push yourself up and out of the soft warm holding you in sleep. Greet the delicate light of the rising sun.

Move to a space filled with yourself, surround yourself with yourself. Pieces of a life and a way of living that belong to you. These objects should be beautiful, reflecting your own beauty back onto yourself.

Speak to the Creator before you write, in whatever way best communicates the intent of your spirit to the Universe. Tap the rug, light a candle, burn incense, chant, shake what your mama gave ya, remain perfectly still: express yourself as a part of the realm of spirit.

Now you are ready to write. And you must write. You will write.

Thanks, Jan, for this quote!