Thoreau writes about morning a couple of times in Walden. His praise for the early hours, and his use of dawn as a metaphor urging us to awaken our minds, inspired me to approach Not Less Than the Good as a morning prayer service. It’s early in the process, but at this point it’s safe to say that the spoken text for the opening section of the music will be some version of this quote (from Where I Lived, and What I Lived For, the second chapter of Walden):

The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour. Then there is least somnolence in us; and for an hour, at least, some part of us awakes which slumbers all the rest of the day and night. Little is to be expected of that day, if it can be called a day, to which we are not awakened by our Genius, but by the mechanical nudgings of some servitor, are not awakened by our own newly-acquired force and aspirations from within, accompanied by the undulations of celestial music, instead of factory bells, and a fragrance filling the air—to a higher life than we fell asleep from; and thus the darkness bear its fruit, and prove itself to be good, no less than the light. That man who does not believe that each day contains an earlier, more sacred, and auroral hour than he has yet profaned, has despaired of life, and is pursuing a descending and darkening way.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself.

I find myself thinking about these words during my morning routine. Part of my own “conscious endeavor” to elevate my life is in paying attention to and reveling in the promise that each new day brings with it. Every day is a chance to do better and be better. Every day is a chance to become more fully aware of the people and world around me. I’m still not what one might call a morning person, but I am learning to appreciate the early hours.