There are days – or is it nights – when 3 a.m. happens. I wake up and there I am, awake. I am not tired or sleepy, I am somehow unable to get back to sleep, and it is simply time to get up.

It’s not that my mind is racing in any sort of crazy way, it’s just time to get up. There are any number of things that it seems like I could always be doing, but those things aren’t rushing through my head. It’s just me and 3 a.m. Does this ever happen to you?

These are actually some of my favorite moments in life, because in these early hours very little is happening and all seems peaceful. My wife is sleeping quietly beside me. Our son is a room away, tucked into his dreams. The dog, though awake as I sneak past him in the hallway, is groggy and not straining in the least to rise.

There is space for my thoughts, room for my mind to breathe… so little distraction at this hour. This is a beautiful spot in time.

It has been just over a year since I last posted here, but I hope to see that change in 2014. It’s not an official resolution or anything like that, I just think there will be more to write about this year, or perhaps simply more of a discipline to focus in on those things most valuable to me, of which one is writing.

Cheers!

– Chad