Yay! A happy post!

I love how fresh and promising everything is in the early morning. The birds are singing (and its a good thing for me I enjoy it, as my neighborhood is practically over-run), the sun has just begun to pull itself up into my world, and my mind is quiet and hopeful, somehow dreamy and alert all at once.
My children are dozing snugly in the little cocoons they've created for themselves, Sam surrounded by Kung Fu Panda stuffed animals, Anna with the 3 or 4 baby blankets she likes to hug beneath her as she sleeps. I have the bed all to myself - heaven! - and am free to spend 5 or 10 or 20 minutes breathing in the morning, stretching, preparing my mind for the day.
I don't know that I could call what I do each morning meditating. From the many times I've begun a meditation practice in my life, that word conjures up for me a constant struggle to force thoughts out of my mind, or worse yet a struggle to not struggle or force it, followed by exasperation, frustration and a stinging sense of failure. So instead I think of myself armoring my mind for the day: I want to dwell as deeply in this morning peace as i can, and use it to refill my well so that when the day's havoc is too much for me i can drink it in then, when i need it the most.
On days like this I find myself even looking forward to my children waking up, anxiously awaiting Sam's sleepy footsteps or Anna's insistent "Baba Mama!" from her crib. Anyone with children knows you don't always look forward to that; there are days when all you're thinking is "oh please just let them sleep late so I can have another cup of coffee in peace." I have lots of those days.
But today isn't one of them. I'm grateful for today, open to what it will bring, hopeful about how I will feel about it tonight when I snuggle into my own cocoon.