I can hear those early morning clucks of the chickens as if they cannot wait for the day to start. I felt that way today waking before 5:30. Now it is still very dark at that time, and the stars were shining brightly, and I was ready to start the day. I love that first awakeness. I can usually gage my day by that first feeling, and if I am not happy when I wake up it is probably going to be a long day. I am likely to become unhappy at later times during the day, that comes and goes, and depends on how deeply I am sinking into the core of my being. I find it still has something to do with the circumstances of the day, but less so than it used to. I am trying to do things from joy rather than obligation. Incremental progress, sometimes one step forward and two back. I remember a story that an elementary school teacher told us once, about a mule who did not want to go the field to work for the day. The mule pulled back two steps for every one the farmer pulled him forward. The farmer found a solution by turning the mule around. So when I find I am moving backwards, I can just turn around. Ok, so maybe I am walking backwards, but at least I am moving in the right direction.

So getting up with the chickens works for me for much of the year, and going to bed with the chickens is fine in June, but it is harder to go to bed with them in October. Soon I will be going to bed at 4 pm. I read recently about factory farmed eggs; the chickens never see the sun, they are just cycling their lives with artificial light, and they can be adapted to a shorter day, 20 hours I think, so they lay an egg every 20 hours instead of 24. More eggs for the farmer to sell. I don't know that I have ever eaten a 20 hour egg, mine come from chickens that run around in the barnyard and eat bugs. I wonder if they would taste different, or if they might reset my own clock. Maybe I wouldn't wake up excited for the day to start anymore.