Don't go back to sleep

Morehead City, NC | October 29, 2014 | 6:13am  

Routinely rising before the sun requires a degree of discipline that I have not entirely harnessed yet. I love waking up early—especially if it involves the opportunity to capture the first light of the morning. But if I'm not waking up to photograph an epic sunrise and I'm sleep deprived (which is often the case), the weight of exhaustion wins the early morning battle. I turn off my alarm and roll over. 

I hate doing that. While I never regret pulling my ass out of bed early, I always feel more tired after I've hit snooze two or three times. On those mornings, I try to remind myself of the magic that accompanies the first minutes of the day—even if I'm not standing next to the ocean.  These words from Rumi help:

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don't go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want. 

Don't go back to sleep. 

People are going back and forth across the doorsill

where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.

Don't go back to sleep. 

- Jalaluddin Rumi

The above photo helps too. A large, framed print of it hangs on the wall directly across from my bed. The location is one of my favorite spots in all of North Carolina—the dock directly behind the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences where you can watch the sun come up over Bogue Sound and the Atlantic Beach bridge. I have photographed many, many sunrises from there.