The Best Morning Wake-Up

Heather Lee
2 min readMar 31, 2023

The back of the white haired author in a hooded pink sweater holds a blue coffee tumblr in her right hand. She has her left arm wrapped around the back of her son, who is in a blue and black plaid sweater. Her head is leaning against his right shoulder as they sit on gray porch steps.
Photo taken by Daughter

I get up in the morning for coffee. I don’t get up because the dogs are doing their bathroom break dancing by the door. I don’t get up because the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and I feel the need to burst into song. I get up because I have to. And to reward myself for that, I get coffee. (Note to all animal lovers, the dogs go out first before the coffee.)

Stumbling to the fridge, barely awake, I start grabbing my coffee supplies. Espresso grounds and the syrup — they slowly assemble like dutiful soldiers on the counter. I reach into the fridge for the milk.

My hand bumps into a tumbler. My tumbler. My coffee tumbler. Why is that in there? I am not awake enough yet to figure this out. I pull the tumbler out and gently shake it. I hear the fluid slosh around. I unscrew the lid and sniff. The beautiful scent of coffee says good morning.

Instantly, I am awake. My heart swells with happiness. Someone did something so kind to help my morning I could cry into that prepared mug of joe.

Little, unexpected kindnesses can set the tone for an entire day. I smile. And when my son wakes up, bleary-eyed and himself stumbling to fill a glass of water, I am there to bear hug him with as much gratitude as I can wrap around him.

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Heather Lee
Heather Lee

Written by Heather Lee

One white cane in a sighted world

Responses (4)

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Nothing beats a morning coffee. Please may I share my friend Daniil's story about coffee here:

https://link.medium.com/hTBtJjlQGyb

7

Oh such a wonderful story, so much love in those words!

20

Awwww what a sweetie that boy is!
What a blessing for doing this kindness for you.

26