Mornings have always been fraught for me. I have distinct memories of my dad being my \u201calarm clock,\u201d clambering into my sister\u2019s and my room, pajama-clad, and flipping the lights on and off repeatedly while making siren noises. All in the name of timeliness.<\/p>\n

Although my mother\u2019s approach, the shoulder-tap-say-name-sternly,<\/em> was certainly gentler, neither really charmed me to mornings.<\/p>\n

So I went off into the wide world with a disdain for mornings. But recently I\u2019ve been waking up, without an alarm, almost daily. And it\u2019s not just that I\u2019m awake in time for work, but with ample time; time that is free and unscheduled.<\/p>\n

I wake up and sit with a cup of coffee and The<\/em> Times<\/em>. I meditate. I listen to Freakconomics <\/em>and apply eyeliner.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m starting to realize mornings don\u2019t have to include sirens and dashing out the door after all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ashley Collom is a Texan 20-something who now resides in NYC. She works in book publishing, lives with her pet tortoise Maxwell House, and has a soft spot for craft beers and pint-sized ice cream. You can follow her on Twitter @ashohley and contact her for freelance writing assistance at\u00a0<\/em>http:\/\/ashleyscollom.wix.com\/freelance<\/span><\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mornings have always been fraught for me. I have distinct memories of my dad being my \u201calarm clock,\u201d clambering into my sister\u2019s and my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[405],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/AshleyEdit.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2385"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2417,"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385\/revisions\/2417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}