It's 5 am…. Rise and Shine!!

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to think, to breathe, to enjoy, to love." 
                                               - Marcus Aurelius

This photo was done for round 16 challenge in Get Pushed

For my very first push, I was paired with the talented Jill [ www.flickr.com/photos/24785880@N08/ ] . If you have not done already, please check her photostream for some excellent nature shots.

Her push to me was "For this challenge, I have this quote that I love that I would like to see you interpret into a photo.. let your creativity flow with this one, no rules or restrictions :)

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to think, to breathe, to enjoy, to love." - Marcus Aurelius

This push delves into a personal portion of you... capturing what it is that makes you feel alive :) Have fun & can't wait to see the results!"

(I wish I could have the reader/viewer read the challenge before seeing the photo for dramatic effect). I chose to go the ironic way. I hope it's not cheating, since there are no rules or restrictions. Also, i think I fulfill the second part of the challenge that goes in to "the personal portion"

Living 30 miles away from work in a city like Houston, famous for horrible rush hour traffic, I have to wake up at 5 am in order not to be stuck for 2 hours on the road. That's at least two hours before sunrise. If it wasn't for the rush of getting ready to catch a van pool, and for the prospect of a 10 hour (at least) day at work, I wouldn't mind waking up that early. What adds to my problem is that I have sleep apnea, which is only one of my sleeping issues. (I even tried using a CPAP machine, without success). Many days I have to force myself to get out of bed at 5 (after tossing and turning since 3) and go to work with only a few hours of sleep, if that. So I'm sure you can see where I found the inspiration for this photo.

That said, I am grateful for every day. I'm very blessed and lucky in my life. Killer (the nicer of our two cats) reminds me of that every morning when he jumps lovingly in my lap and rubs himself against my dark dress pants making sure to get as much of his white hair as he can onto my clothes in the few minutes I have to drink my quad-espresso while trying to wake up.

From a technical POV, setting up this photo and having many tries with varying success was great because I always wanted to do a motion freeze photo. I tried a time or two in the past with no success and never had the patience to follow up. In this respect, I think "the push" worked exactly like it should. Driving me to try a new thing.

Thanks Jill. That was a lot of fun. Looking forward to the next round.