Climb for Hospice

I am a morning person. Always have been, always will be, and I’m totally a-ok with that.

I have woken up in many different places, in a handful of different countries to begin great moments in my life. I have woken in the mountains to the muffled sounds of avalanche bombs in the distance. I have woken on the rocky shores of rivers, to the gentle still of  quiet lakes, to the eye-widening blue of foreign seas, and to the sounds of four great oceans. I have woken in the echoing Rainforest, to the raging city, and among the wildflowers…

But there isn’t anything quite like waking up in my home town.

Ladner’s symphony starts early, with the harbour seals barking to wake the swans, and the ducks (mumbling) waddling to the water after they stretch the night off their wings. Handfuls of tiny birds, (looking more like puffy feather balls as they fluff themselves up and get ready to start the day), apparently sit outside my window and chat with one another about how best to go about the day ahead.

Aaaaand then I’m usually attacked by two ecstatic dogs with big, wet noses who are very grateful that I’ve finally stopped sleeping.

Morning in Ladner – there’s nothing like it in the world.

And I wonder; What music will I wake up to in Dar es Salaam? What will it be like to start a new day in Zanzibar? Will I know where I am when I wake on Kilimanjaro to the sound of no birds?

Well, it’s going to be nice to find out.