Wake Up

There is a device at the head of my bed with which I have a love/hate relationship. It gives me a degree of comfort - the kind that comes with discipline and safety while also being an enemy to my comfort.

The very name of the device evokes images of fear, terror, shock, and awe: ALARM.

"Don't be alarmed," is a common way of assuring people that there is no reason to be disturbed, frightened, or unsettled.

But  that is what my alarm clock does to me every morning - so much so that I often wake up on my own to avoid being jarred from my rest by its sudden and obnoxious emission of offensive sound.

It alarms me.

So, I subconsciously avoid hearing it, wake up in a sluggish manner, turn it off, switch it to radio, and listen to the news while I wake up gently.

I've been known to wake up every half hour or more and look at when I am scheduled for an extremely early morning assignment.

I've been known to shake it and perform other bizarre behaviors surrounding it in my half-wakeful, half-asleep states.

No one likes to be alarmed.

However, I need this backup plan. The demands of our lives mandate a reminder that it is time to wake up, get up, and get going whether we are ready or not. We have appointments to keep, jobs to do, and responsibilities to administer. We simply have to wake up and we may need some sort of alarm to assure that we do.

So, what is there to be alarmed about every morning at 4, 5, 6, or 7? What are the requirements and where is the wiggle room (the snooze button factor)?

We are to be alarmed at the possibility that we will miss the possibilities that the day has in store.

Of course, there are practical considerations such as loss of job, missing classes, not getting the kids to school on time, and having to rush through breakfast and quiet time, but the real issue is possibility.

Every day has something in store to be embraced with enthusiasm and wonder. Missing that something is cause for alarm, so we sound the alarm at a predetermined time.

You needed no alarm as a child for Christmas morning, but now, as old fuddie duddies who have lost some of that childlike wonder, we need a little help.

What are the alarms in your life that alert you to wake up to the possibilities around you? They are not always pleasant to hear.  They may help you wake up on your own to avoid hearing them. Yet, they are necessary reminders that life is good and that this day could be a major turning point in your life.

Wake up. You may meet the person today who hands you a key to a great mystery or a marvelous future. You may read one idea or hear one insight that will unravel the tangled mess of confusion with which you have been struggling.

Today is yours. Don't stagger through it in a flog of oblivious indifference. Don't sleepwalk through this day.

If you miss the possibilities, that is something to be alarmed about!

The Dream Factory