I Love Breakfast

   Okay, maybe that's a bit of an understatement.
 
   I'm obsessed with breakfast.

   I don't know why or how it came about but I recently realized my love for breakfast. I like breakfast in the early morning and I like having breakfast foods for dinner and it just makes me very happy.

   I've finally been able to, for the most part, get myself on a better schedule the past few weeks. This homeschooler used to sleep until ten or eleven every single day. But now I aim to wake up at seven to eight. And let me tell you, it's awesome. Of course, when I first hear my alarm I want to shut it off and never get out of bed ever because I'm still so exhausted. But I force myself up because I know that within five minutes I'll be feeling incredible. I love waking up early for a lot of reasons. Well, at this time, the sun is just rising and pouring light into my living room right where my laptop sits and all my siblings are still asleep so it's the only time of day when the house is totally silent, and when I wake up early I can actually eat breakfast.

   It's something so simple but I love it. I really love pancakes, or eggs, or hashbrowns, and fruit! Fruit has been my best friend lately. Sometimes I make myself Greek yogurt with strawberries or maybe french toast or just regular toast. And coffee. Always coffee. I have an adorable mug that my mom bought for me and I use it every morning and I take so many pictures of it you've probably seen it on my Facebook page a million times.

   And that's just how I feel about mornings.

   I also really love cute fairly local diners. There's a place by my house, that I actually almost got a waitressing job for, that I like. I went there with some friends on free pancake day, even though their pancakes weren't free. It was great. There's something about the atmosphere of diners that makes me feel happy and at ease; like everything's going to be okay. Diners and pancakes make me think of happiness. There is something special about going out to a diner with a friend and drinking coffee and just talking about life that just really hits me on a spiritual level. Maybe its because as a kid I didn't go out to eat a lot, and when we did it was this huge deal and my brother and sister and I always had to be on our best behavior and we wanted to show our parents how obedient we were so they would take us out again. Or maybe it's that Denny's always reminds me of my great grandma because she took us out there whenever we went to visit her, which wasn't often, but I love her a lot.

   But maybe my love for diners just comes from the fact that I'm a writer and a dreamer and I like to think that anything is possible when you're eating breakfast at a cute diner. There's always the possibility that something incredible is going to happen; you could strike up a great conversation with the waitress, you could see your soul mate sitting two booths down reading your favorite novel, you could discover your new favorite food, you could simply sit alone with your bible and let your heart be still and hear from God for the first time in goodness knows how long. You could journal, listen to music, think. You could just stop what you're doing for an hour and soak in the beauty of life and realize how blessed you really are. Because if you can afford breakfast at a cute diner than you must be doing pretty great; because a lot of people can't.

   I think I need that a lot. To just take a time out and just be. We all could use some time to just set aside everything and be thankful and happy. Life sucks sometimes and I get sad a lot and I'm sure there are people out there who feel the same way; but there are certain moments where I am so entranced by life and it's never when I expect it; it's usually when I'm doing seemingly meaningless activities like eating breakfast. But I just come alive and I think about how God created such simple things that bring me such joy and I wonder how I could feel this deep sense of oneness with Him, or even more so I wonder how people go about missing all these moments. It's when the hurt and sadness mix with simplicity and joy that I truly feel connected with God. And when I think about heaven, I know a lot of people think it's going to be giant and grand and spacious and spectacular. But me? I sort of think heaven is going to be like God and I sitting down for coffee. Because that's what real happiness is to me.