Back Porch Meditation with Coffee and Dogs

Daily writing prompt

What are your morning rituals? What does the first hour of your day look like?

View all responses

I go downstairs and let the dogs out. I watch Durant take a giant leap off the back porch and run to the back fence. Tempest picks her way down the stairs as if she’s wearing heels and a pencil skirt.

I make a pot of coffee and then I portion out the dogs’ breakfast into two bowls. I take the two bowls out to the porch where the two dogs are pacing. Durant looks partly crazy at this point. I put his bowl down first, artfully sliding it across the porch floor so his intense energy doesn’t accidentally sever one of my fingers. Tempest’s bowl is set before her as if it is cucumber soup in a china bowl.

Once the coffee is done, my husband and I sit on the back porch. This happens if the temperature is above, say, forty or so, maybe thirty-five, depending on the wind. I put on a coat over my pajamas and robe and my husband, already in a very old but thick robe, brings a blanket and we sit in our ancient porch chairs, drink our coffee, and pet our dogs.

We also take note of the birds. We talk and laugh. The conversation is fractured and often funny, mostly because at this point in the day, I can’t hear because I’ve not yet put on my hearing equipment. My husband uses his own version of sign language to talk to me, often spelling out words, letter by letter, in the air. When we are tired of this and have finished our first cup of coffee, we go inside, get more coffee and go upstairs to read the paper.

There are no pictures of all this because the back porch is a no phone zone. You’ll just have to take my word for it.