Do you consider yourself a morning person? Did you ever have to wake up very early, when it was freezing cold and pitch dark outside, and all you really wanted was the warmth and cosiness of your bed, and the sweet embrace of your dreams? I was exactly like that…until yesterday.

I rose early yesterday – not willingly or of my own choice, since, for me, there is nothing better in the whole world than sleeping until late in the morning, or even in the afternoon. I had to get up early because of work commitments: that is, to give a 9 a.m. tutorial about the pagan Celts. I am willing to make that sacrifice for the sake of education, or, even better, for the sake of Celtic Studies! 🙂

So a few days ago, I was trying to convince myself that, as every cloud has a silver lining, there must be something good about waking up early. I was searching through my memory to find consolatory proverbs such as ‘The early bird catches the worm’ (not that I particularly like worms!), and ‘First to lie, first to rise, makes the man…. and wise’ (sorry, I can’t recall the last proverb properly, probably because it does not apply to me anyhow!). But then the ever-famous, frightening day came. Suddenly, it was Thursday, 10th September, and my two alarm clocks were as unmerciful as expected, since they rang at half past 6 a.m.. Even before hearing the alarm clock, I was woken up by the shrieks of seagulls. And I was surprised by that, for seagulls are a very rare occurrence in the area of Dublin where I live. My neighbourhood is located at a distance from the sea, and while there is no scarcity of pigeons, I have rarely seen seagulls. Perhaps I spotted them sometimes, when the weather was turning bad, but that is not the case today. According to Irish folklore, seagulls turning inland is a sign that the weather is going to be bad, as I read in one of the Manuscripts of the National Folklore Collection while doing research on something else (sorry… couldn’t help it!).

When I got up from my bed and went to open the curtains, I was literally surrounded by seagulls (well, they weren’t in my flat, but you know what I mean! 🙂 ), which were flying, apparently unstoppable, all around my building outside. I wonder whether seagulls are to be found in my local area every morning around dawn (as I am normally fast asleep at that time, I would not notice their shrieks), or whether their presence was a special gift, for me, that day. Perhaps all that flying and moving is the way the seagulls have to pay homage to, and greet, the rising sun. The seagulls also reminded me of a little book, which I read this June, about the seagull Jonathan Livingstone. You might have heard about it, for it is a best-seller throughout the world (I suspect that the fact that this book is very short might have contributed to its popularity). I found it interesting as a parable of those people who are not happy with following the crowd, or being a sheep. A metaphor for creative individuals with a strong personality, who are not afraid of thinking outside the box, even if sometimes they are not understood by most fellow human beings. But I cannot think of that book as a direct reproach against the real animals – the seagulls, not after yesterday morning. After all, I don’t think that they were simply flying in search of food, but they were dancing for the sun! Poor old seagulls, they cannot write or speak our language, so they cannot defend themselves against bad press…!

Yesterday morning, while looking outside the window at the sky, tinged with a pink-purple light, at the seagulls flying all around, and given the fact that very few human beings were outdoor at that time of the morning, I was struck by the beauty and wildness of it all. It was the city centre of a European capital, but it was also much more. It looked different from my area as I know it during the day. There was a sense of waiting, calm, silence and expectation lingering in the air, so palpable that I could almost breathe it. Therefore, I was content with myself, happy about living that moment, and about being there to witness that great scene. I am lucky indeed, and I would have missed it all, were it not for an early morning tutorial.
So, next time you are tempted to hit the snooze button on your alarm clock, think again…or you may miss some serious early morning magic!