A Rude, and timely awakening........

I LOVE the mornings when I am not jolted awake by a mechanical alarm; when I can lay my head on my pillow at night with the peaceful thought of letting my body rest until it is ready to face another day. Monday-Thursdays I set my alarm for between 5:30 and 6am, and it is amazing that that last 30 minutes I get on the weekend makes all the difference.

I am, by nature, a morning person. I remember spending the night at friend's houses as a kid, and I was invariably the first one awake in the house, and I'd just lay there bored, wondering how in the world people could sleep that long. Who knows how late (or early) it really was. I didn't pay that much attention to the clock in those days, but I do know that now, I usually pop my eyes open, fully rested at about 7am, give or take 30 minutes. Sometimes I feel frustrated when I wake up at 6:15, and yet it is such a joy to know I can close them again if I want to (on Saturdays and Sunday)...after I let the dogs empty their bladders.

This morning I was woken early by the sound of house painters next door; their metal ladders and rolls of tape flying. Before I could even muster frustration, I felt compassion...and also gratitude. These men are making the rounds in the neighborhood on weekends getting everyone's homes freshly coated before the cold and the rain. The are Hispanic, and seem to only work weekends, which to me, means they probably have a weekday job elsewhere, and are making ends meet by working the other 2 days that the rest of us rest a little more from our paying jobs. I felt respect that they work hard 7 days a week, and I sometimes find myself complaining about working 4-5. I felt compassion for the time they do not get to 'off'. I felt gratitude for being born in this land, and having the means and opportunity to go to college and get a degree that allows me to make ends meet in a 5 day work week. I felt ashamed, that we, as a nation have such inequality in our workforce and payscale; that our teachers and laborers work so hard for so little, while men in suits and white shirts in high rise buildings make decisions that make or break people's pocket books, and pay the less educated to do their dirty work. I am also guilty, to an extent. The lady who has cleaned my house every other week has been on maternity leave for 4 months, and boy have I missed her. Her requested fee was quite a 'deal' when first offered 3 years ago. I raised her a measly $5 a week last year without her asking, but in her absence, my conscience got the best of me, and in checking around at what most people pay, I had to ask myself if it was fair to her, what I had been paying. It was what she asked, but...I feel she is worth so much more. Not only in the good job she does, but she is attempting to raise a family with 2 small children, and she works so much harder than I do at my job, yet I make over twice what she does. And so, I bit the bullet and now pay her what I feel is an honorable wage for cleaning our toilets and scrubbing our floors. I am attempting to look at how I contribute the the inequality in this country and world.

And I am sooooooo dang thankful I don't have to work 7 days a week, and can lay in bed a little longer 2 days a week. So, I ask myself; where am I asleep to the abundance and comfort I enjoy? Where can I show more gratitude and more fairly compensate those who make my life easier? Val