“I need to make an appointment with you on Friday morning. At 5:30AM. Are you busy?”
I laugh out loud at hubby’s question. “If you mean busy by sleeping. Yes, I’m busy. But other than sleep, I don’t have any other commitments.”
“Okay then. See you Friday morning. [The day is Monday.] Actually, make it 4:45AM. So we can be there by 5:30.”
“4:45??!!” My eyes feel heavy thinking ahead to the loss of sleep I’ll experience four days from now.
Why on earth would Sun ask me to wake up so early, and why would he ask so far in advance, you might be wondering? Well, every once in awhile, the tables turn, and my schedule reads like I’m the doctor and he’s the househubs. Like a rumor that spread through New York City, all of a sudden every senior that signed up for the October S.A.T. realizes that they have a little over a month left to prepare and this S.A.T. tutor’s phone is blowing up like it’s nobody’s business. Doesn’t help that my phone battery is on its deathbed, and I have a few writing deadlines around the corner. Throw in four kids under thirteen and a husband, and we’re talking messy. Messy. Messy. Every minute of every hour seems booked, and when I outlined my week to Santhosh, he could have coughed. Cringed. Or cursed. Instead, he did the opposite. He planned.
For a sunrise kayaking date on the Long Island Sound when I was clearly available—in the wee hours of the morning when our princesses would still be off in dreamland and no high school student has ever asked to be tutored.
I knew we were kayaking because I saw the two smaller boats secured to the top of our Sequoia last night. When I walked in the house, a vase of tiny yellow roses graced our kitchen table. Love when hubs buys me flowers for no reason.
The alarm goes off at 4:45.
Actually, hubs wakes up at 4:30AM Friday morning. And before I roll out of bed with my eyes half open, the scent of bacon dances its way into my olfactory glands which are the only muscles awake right now. Not that glands are muscles. But I’m not the doctor. Even if my calendar has little white space this week.
By the time I’m dressed, coffee, eggs and bacon are packed and hubs has a smile on his face. I grab the blue dry box and we’re on the road. Two stars still dot the sky and not until we turn the corner into the parking lot at Pribles Beach in Glen Cove do we see color. It’s almost time.
We unload the kayaks and carry them side by side a few feet to the shore. It’s high tide and the water is still save a few ripples where the beach starts. We each use the scooting method to slide off the rocky shore and begin paddling out into the Sound. There are only two other boaters visible, two speed boats with fishermen who watch the sunrise every day as they work for a living.
“Let’s pull away from the land to get a better view.” I suggest as the sky lightens more and more with each passing minute. It’s so peaceful out here, we hardly exchange any words at first. As resistant as I was to losing sleep, I’m so glad we’re here. Together.
One fisherman speeds by and stops not to far to the right of us.
After polite ‘good mornings,’ I ask, “What’s for lunch?”
“Unless you want clam chowder…” I didn’t hear what he said.
After rowing a little more to keep the wake from turning our kayaks away from the direction of the sunrise, hubs pulls up next to mine by holding onto my oar. It’s time for breakfast.
“Wow. There’s nothing like it!” Hubs says while my eyes take in the pastels spreading across the sky scattered with clouds.
“The sunrise?” I ask, thinking, of course he means the sunrise.
“No. The bacon. Nothing like thick cut, Canadian bacon.”
I just shake my head. Haha.
And when I turn my head to look back toward the rays beaming out from behind the peninsula, I am in awe. “There it is!”
A red ball of fire is just beginning to peek out from behind the land. Wow to the wow. Silently, we watch the sun rise. Moment by moment. Captivated.
I love the sun rise. But our relationship is like any great love story. To spend time with the sun, I have to be willing to sacrifice. And to spend time with my Sunshine, I have to sacrifice. And to spend time with the Son, I have to sacrifice.
“I felt like ever since we came back from Acadia, we were getting disconnected. Like two ships passing. We hardly had any time together.” Hubs explains why he asked in the first place as we begin rowing back into shore.
I almost ruin it. My mind races ten steps ahead to how I can be super productive if I get home and cook up a meal for my friends who just had a baby. And my cursed gift spills out as I think all this out loud.
“Sure. If that’s what you want to do?” Hubs responds. Sarcasm and disappointment underlie every word.
Stupid me. Why did I think aloud? “Of course that’s NOT what I want to do. I want to spend time with you. That’s what we’re here for.”
As we put the kayaks back up on the SUV roof, I’m praying that enough time passes that hubs will forgive my goof. He does. We sit on a concrete slab on the edge of the beach and share things we haven’t talked about. Ideas that have come up. Plans and dreams for coming days and even next summer. We hash through some painful feelings regarding the stressful summer we’ve had. We connect. I feel connected. I think he does to.
By the time we arrive back home, we’re both off and running. Him to work and me to Queens for the girls last day of a summer program and then some hours with my friends and their newborn princess.
As I think about my morning date with hubs, I’m so thankful for a best friend who initiates and finds ways to invest in me. In us. Everything worth anything costs. And the love of my life, my sunshine, is worth every second God gives us together.
Nothing like a sunrise kayaking date with coffee and bacon. Nothing like a hubs who loves me enough to wake me up for it.
Nothing like the Son who gave me Sun to walk with through this crazy life. Nothing like life lived. Awake and sleepy. But so thankful. So thankful.
**Have you seen a sunrise lately? Don’t go through life and miss it. Make time to see at least one.
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Yes I am. Very Very blessed!
How sweet. Your hubby is very thoughtful, what a blessed girl you are.