Some things are better in the morning.

When we’re presumably more rested. When our minds are fresh and our energy hasn’t yet waned. When we have the benefit of a new day andwhen we’re really luckya new frame of mind.

This is the advice I shared with a young adult in my life some time well after the witching hour one recent night while the Holy Spirit was holding open my eyelids because all the other parts of me were DONE. Like I had already completed my bedtime meditation routine before I was summoned to actively parent, and it was basically super inconvenient.

It is the great, unsolvable mystery of the universe that children need us most when we are our sleepiest, both as little people and then again when their bodies and experiences and lives are bigger.

When they are wee people and they are restless at night, we scoop them up and we give them a drink and a blanket and we rock and rock (and rock and rock and rock some more and then army crawl backward out of the room and away from their sleeping bodies) and we routinely fix the whole lives of our children this way. And, when we get desperate, we shove a passy in it. (Is it even called that anymore?)

RELATED: The Nights Are So Long

When our children are burgeoning adults with omnipresent social media and when they’re living lives that scream at them to be more and to do more and to have more while their still-developing brains process the ecosystem that is 2020 and when they’re restless at night, we wrap up our own selves in blankets and get our own drinks and we listen and nod and listen and nod some more, and we ultimately fix exactly nothing in the whole, wide world.

And then, because there are no pacis and because we are no longer ridiculously young parents who somehow did not sleep when we were building our careers and staying up all night rocking awake-babies, we summon our remaining parental magic to coax the adult-sized bodies to bed with a hug (if we’re lucky) while imparting this nugget of wisdom . . .

Some things are better in the morning.

And, it’s true. Sometimes we just need to rest and recalibrate. Sometimes things really are better in the morning. Sometimes, unfortunately, things are just as ugly.

Sometimes we’re ugly in the morning.

But at least we’re better rested and can mostly keep open our eyes, and maybe we’ve even had a shower, which also can make things better.

Friends, for all of us out there without all the answersand that’s most of ussometimes it’s enough to put our troubles to bed for the night, wrap up in our covers, and REST. And then start over the next day with a shower and coffee and then some more coffee.

RELATED: Parenting Older Kids is Freaking Exhausting

I think the author likely had this in mind when he penned that part of Lamentations that reminds us that God’s mercies are new every day.

Which I’m just saying, at least in my life, roughly translates into . . . Some things are better in the morning. Please go to sleep already because I’m turning into a pumpkin. 

Originally published on the author’s Facebook page

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Whitney Westbrook

Whitney Westbrook writes about navigating midlife, mostly with grace. Because midlife is relentless and irreverent, and because we should all talk about it out loud more. Follow her for more misadventures and insights on all things midlife at So Very Whitney

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