Life on the West Side

I wake up with my alarm at 6am, but because I went to bed late the night before I turn it off and let myself fall back to sleep for another hour or so. I wake up again around 8am with a list of a million things to do today. Laundry, groceries, meal planning, exercising and all the menial tasks adults do on weekends. I am determined to be productive today and my Type A personality is already formulating to-do lists and time frames in my head.

I turn to climb out of bed around 8.15am, ready to tackle my tasks and am stopped by a sleeping husband, barely roused by my movement but pulling me back into his arms with his eyes still closed. I close my eyes again and just relish a few more minutes close to him. I attempt to wiggle out of him again a half-hour later, this time realizing I am now past the time I prefer to be up and at ‘em. He stirs a little bit and barely whispers in my ear, “Just stay here” as his feet tangle more in mine and his arms hold me tighter.

So here I am, smooshed and tangled beneath my Brown Bear, awake as I hear him breathe softly in my ear, my morning productivity slipping away. But surprisingly, I’m blissfully happy here. I am not anxious about my day, about my worries or my to-do list. It’s then I realize, THESE are the moments that matter. My household tasks can wait. My workout can wait. It’s these moments being close to my Merr-Bear that I won’t get back and that I don’t get enough of. These are the moments that matter so much.

A million thoughts of our life together go through my head and I smile thinking of him close to me. A line of one of our meaningful songs floats through my head, “I’ll never let you go.” I’m resolved to stay here with him for a little while longer. Besides, there’s nothing worse than leaving a warm bed and a warm boy on a cold morning.

As Merrick gets pulled into a deeper slumber, he changes positions and releases me from his arms an hour later. Although I’m now free to start my delayed morning, I now feel cold without him and turn back towards him so we’re still touching. And despite it being two plus hours past my ideal wake up time, I hold him for a few minutes longer until he peeks his eyes open, turns to me, smiles that delicious smile and squeezes me tightly. Here we are, ready to tackle our day together.

Now that is an ideal way to start a day, no matter what time it actually starts.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 20th, 2012 at 2:04 pm and is filed under Life, Marriage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.