Matutinality—such a great way to start the day!

And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” (Genesis 1:20 ESV)

The Texas dawn was beautiful-- no, spectacular!-- this morning as I occupied my post in the parking lot. Today was the first day I can recall that the sun was up over the horizon went I went into school just before 7am. And each morning for the last three or four weeks I've been witness to the predawn calls and aerial frenzy of the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher community that calls our parking lot home (tall lights, a few trees). This morning I could see them more clearly as they flittered about, engaging in mock dog fights all around me. At one point I thought one was going to land on me.

They're noisy buggers, too-- take a listen to what I hear every morning, only multiplied by the numbers of Flycatchers in close proximity: Scissor-tailed Flycatcher's dawn song. I wondered at first, a few weeks back, in the dark, what kind of birds were making this sound... At 6:20am it's the unmistakable sound of Creation...

And as the Flycatchers and other creatures come to life every morning, it's like a ballet. It's even interesting to watch the handful of enterprising crows picking over any trash on the ground left by students. Often a patrol of ducks will fly overhead, too, almost always headed south.

I guess that's part of the appeal of a matutinal duty such as this, by comparison to checking student IDs at the door or monitoring lunch periods in the cafeteria. The wildlife I encounter before I start my school day don't wear earbuds, pollute the environment, or have an attitude. It's a peaceful and serene way to begin the day, at least for those few minutes before the headlights start bearing down on me and the buses lumber through like a huge herd of elephants (it's quite the scene, man)...

Every morning I am grateful for the gift of life, to be able to experience the daily ebb and flow, the hustle and bustle, the very rhythm of creation.

I believe that I will miss parking lot duty when I leave my teaching job in just over a month. I will miss its matutinality!

(okay, "matutinality" is not a real word, but shouldn't it be?)