Waking

At 4:30 PM, Friar’s body clock knows it’s dinner time. If we forget, he presents a toy and with sad eyes gives us “the look.” Likewise, at kennel time, he announces it’s 8:30 PM. As I age, my body clock generally wakes me around 4 AM. I’m awake, but not yet alert.

The sound of the percolator, a cup of coffee, and Wordle ease me into alertness. Generally, my first read is the Daily Meditation emailed after midnight from the Center for Action and Contemplation, followed by Letters from an American by Heather Cox Richardson.

Yesterday, drawn by the headline, my first read was Robert Hubbell’s Today’s Edition Newsletter: “Trump surrenders, calls for release of Epstein files!” Then, I read the CAC’s Daily Meditation, by CAC faculty member Brian McLaren: “Not as Rational as We Think.”

Those readings were a perfect pair. McLaren captured America’s recent political tilt-a-whirl: “We may live in the same country, the same city, or even under the same roof, but we live in different realities.”

Over the last decade, I have felt increasingly alarmed about the vitriol, distrust, and destructive miscommunication that are tearing people apart everywhere I turn … in nations, in religious communities, in businesses, in non-profit organizations, in friendships, even in families. 

By then, I was awake, alert and ready for another cup of coffee.

This week’s CAC Daily Meditations theme is “Recognizing Our Biases.” The theme image is a 2021 photo by Bud Helisson, with this commentary: The lenses symbolize how our inherent biases—like favoring what confirms what we already believe or seeing only those like ourselves—can cloud our vision, reminding us that true clarity comes from looking again and being willing to see differently.