I just got home from a long weekend in North Carolina, visiting my daddy and stepfamily. It’s always a whirlwind when I’m there; I stay at my stepsister’s house, and she’s got two amazing, highly energetic sons who bounce moon-balls off the walls and ask all sorts of fascinating questions. I myself bounce around — from their house to my daddy’s house, about 20 minutes away.

I never get enough sleep. But it’s worth it to receive all the love and quality time and comfort of being around people you enjoy.

So I came home from all of this, sleep deprived yet somehow recharged, and decided that my first morning back in the normal work routine, I’d have a Silent Morning.

It’s not like I didn’t make any noise, or ignore Bird (our cat). One simply cannot ignore such innate Cuteness first thing in the morning.

However, I did avoid opening my cell phone (i.e., email and social media) in bed. And I avoided turning on my latest audiobook selection as I was getting ready for the day.

Here’s what I ended up doing:

1. Meditating. I listened to Bradley Cooper and Dax Shepard talk about Transcendental Meditation® (TM) during my drive down to NC, and after looking it up online and seeing that it’s an official “thing” (hence the initial-capping and ®) and you have to pay an official person to learn it, I did what any red-blooded American does and looked for free alternatives on YouTube. I found a two-minute video that talks about selecting a mantra, spent a couple minutes determining some sounds that made sense to me, then selected a different video and meditated for 20 minutes while lying on my heating pad. I think for it to “officially” be TM, you’re supposed to be in a seated position, but we’re all about flexibility with rules these days.

2. Coffee-ing. I made my cup of coffee, frothed my H&H, and settled at the table with my laptop. Why is this interesting (to me)? Because normally, I settle on the couch and put on either Modern Family or an ambience video on YouTube. But today, I sat at the table, checked my email on the computer (SO much better than on a phone), and took care of some email-triggered tasks!

3. Hello, friend. And now I’m writing these words to you.

I won’t go so far as to say that none of these things would’ve happened had I popped on my audiobook, but I can say with near-certainty that, had I unlocked my cell phone from bed, they would’ve been delayed by at LEAST an hour. Probably two.

And then I would’ve had that icky feeling that comes when I focus my attention on a tiny screen and others’ thoughts first thing in the morning, rather than embracing the silence and seeing what comes from it.

Honestly, I doubt I’d be saying hi to you today.

So HI.