Fall is my favorite time of year, and I have always associated that sentiment with my birthday in October; but this morning, in early September more than two weeks before the official start of the season, I realized for the first time another reason to love Fall — and perhaps the real reason I do.

As I sit here at 7AM, it is not quite dawn. My soul gets to enter the day in God’s time, with the light. I forget, over the summer with its brilliant early mornings that drop me into the middle of the daylight as soon as I wake. I forget the quiet peace of being with the day as it begins. The promise, the possibilities of waking when it doesn’t feel like I’ve already wasted hours of daylight behind my sleep mask in bed.

I am not a farmer who needs to set my alarm clock by the sun to maximize the daylight hours. I am a person who likes a full night of sleep and a slower pace of life. It feels especially lovely, then, as we move toward Fall, when God’s pace and mine naturally coincide.