A stress-free morning and an unexpected visitor

I am now consciously starting my 3rd morning in a row earlier than necessary. Yesterday I had trouble getting out of bed, today too. But I still didn't press the ‘snooze button’ and woke up straight away.

What do I do every morning?

For the last three days, I've been waking up and drinking two cups of water straight away to hydrate myself. Then I sit on my bed and meditate for 10 minutes. And as soon as that's over, I write for 30 minutes. I reflect, visualise and affirm. Then I read for 10-30 minutes and do at least 10 minutes of sport or stretch.

But how do I find the time and where do I get the energy from?

It's actually quite simple. The first question can be answered in four words:

I get up earlier.

And I get the energy for it because I have no problem doing something strenuous in the morning. It's never long, and I enjoy reading. I forbid myself to use my mobile phone during this time, except when I'm reading, because my books are on my mobile phone. And the best thing about it: I don't like doing these things after school, but I love doing them when I wake up. Because I know that I'll be done with everything within an hour or two and then I've already done something productive for the day. It's an incredibly good feeling to have done a few good things straight after getting up.

I wake up, I do a few things that I do every morning to develop myself, I start the day.

It's early and I have time

Because I start each day much earlier than I should, I have extra time. Sometimes I'm done with my routine and realise that on other days I would probably still be asleep.

And that motivates me

As it is very motivating to see how much I get done early in the morning without any stress, my day starts with several success stories. And because I also think about the day's goals as I write, I set about these tasks with a high level of energy and willingness. For example, I had planned to write my daily article before school, and so I'm sitting here writing. I have also already taken a walk to a German bakery to see if they have any bread. Unfortunately not, but there was nothing I could do about that.

I bought two pastries anyway, for the equivalent of about €4.50 and strolled back. It does something to the mind and spirit when you're out in the fresh air in the morning and your eyes are getting used to the brightness of the day.

Full of good spirit, I ate my pastries (a delicious fried cheese and ham sandwich and a plum turnover) on the balcony. I didn't have a chair, but I just stood there looking at the surroundings and enjoying the fresh breeze. And suddenly, out of nowhere, a raven flew in.

Unexpected visitor

Out of nowhere, a raven stood one floor above me on the left-hand corner of the building. He just sat there and looked around. I have always been fascinated by animals and their behaviour and am happy when they are near me. I watched him for a few moments and then he suddenly looked down at me. He seemed interested as to why I was looking at him. And instinctively I tore something off my sandwich, just a corner. I took a few steps along the narrow balcony in his direction and carefully placed the piece of sandwich on the railing. I looked at him as I took each step forward, holding the food in front of me so that he knew I had good intentions. As I turned round and took two steps to make room for the raven to get the food, I heard a loud ‘clang’. I was startled and turned round. The raven was standing there, its claws tightly wrapped around the metal railing. The piece of sandwich already in its beak and looking at me. I turned round a little too hastily and he instinctively flew away. But before he did, we looked each other in the eye for a moment. He flew to the tower block on the other side of the street and landed on the railing of the balcony. He ate the piece of sandwich in front of my eyes. And then he crowed loudly several times.

The ravens

I broke off another piece of sandwich, this time with a piece of egg and ham. I put it back on the railing and walked back to the other side of the balcony. The raven flew to me again and landed on the railing with the same ‘Kläng’. This time he stayed perched for longer because I looked away first, thinking that my gaze might frighten him. Then I looked into his eyes and not a second later he flew off again. I'm not sure whether it was fear, disinterest or instinct on the raven's part, but now I wanted more. I left the balcony door open and got some baguette and tore it into several small pieces. Then I put it on the railing. I looked over to the other tower block and saw three ravens. The raven had called his friends. I took a few steps back and waited to see what happened.

But none of them flew off at first.

I wondered why, didn't they like baguettes? And then, out of nowhere, a fourth raven appeared above me at high speed and slowed down with three or four wing beats. This one took the baguette and stayed longer. It looked straight at me, the baguette between its beak and tilted its head. I tilted my head too. Then he crowed loudly four times with the food in his mouth and took off again.

What a beautiful sight

I repeated this a few more times, and each time a different raven flew past. The last few times several flew by at once, which must have brought some food envy to the surface. But I didn't want to give the ravens too much dry baguette because I think they can choke on too much dough. That's the case with ducks anyway, as baguette expands and can get stuck in the throat if it's dry. So I went back inside and thought about how I was going to finish my breakfast. I realised that I hadn't eaten any vitamins today and decided on a kiwi. I've been eating them with the skin on for years now, after always washing them thoroughly of course. But I never eat the hard end of a kiwi, and when I got to that end, I remembered that ravens are omnivores, so I left not only the end, but an extra bite of the ripe fruit. I went out onto the balcony one last time and looked around for ravens. But all the ravens were gone, except for one. Whether it was the same raven as at the beginning, I don't know. But that wasn't important. I found it much more interesting to observe whether the raven would react differently to the fruit. Whether it would find it tastier than a piece of dry baguette. Very likely.

I placed the kiwi on the railing and demonstratively took a few steps back again. The raven came straight away. It landed, but took the fruit straight back to the opposite building on the railing. There he carefully put the fruit down and it looked as if he was testing how the food I had given him tasted. He looked at me for 5 seconds, which in my mind at least I took as a brief expression of gratitude, and then devoured the kiwi in two bites. Then he flew away.

Conclusion

It was a normal morning when I woke up. I was tired and hadn't slept that well, but I got up anyway. I planned my entire day within the first hour and started with a lot of reading and morning exercise. Then I went for a walk and had a good breakfast. It's now just over four hours into my day and I'm doing very well. I love little pleasures like the one with the ravens. I love moments like that because nobody normally notices them, but they somehow make me appreciate the little things. You're grateful for experiences like that, at least I am. I still have about an hour before I have to go to school and I'm going to use this time productively. Probably with vocabulary and grammar revision. And a shower would do me good, that's still to come!

Until then!