I’ve noticed something as I’ve gotten older… I wake up early.
Sometimes really early. Like 2 or 3 in the morning.
Most nights I can fall back asleep, but it takes a while. And honestly, I think it’s just how I’m wired now. I’m usually in bed by 9, asleep by 10, and my body seems pretty content running on 5 or 6 hours.
For a long time, I kind of hated it.
Lying there in the dark, doing the math on how much sleep I wasn’t getting.
But this morning shifted something.
I got up, went to grab some breakfast, and out of nowhere I was taken back to one of the best memories of my childhood.
My grandfather worked for the telephone company.
When I’d stay with them in the summers, he would always ask me one thing before bed…
“If I get a page tonight, you want me to wake you up and go with me?”
It was never a maybe. It was always yes.
And every once in a while, at 2 or 3 in the morning, he’d tap me on the shoulder.
We’d get in his truck, and head out into a world that felt completely different.
No traffic.
No noise.
Just empty roads and quiet streets.
He showed me that if you hit the speed limit just right, you could catch every green light all the way across town. East side to downtown without stopping once.
At that age, it felt like magic.
And now, thinking back on it… it still does.
So this morning, instead of being annoyed that I was awake, I had a different thought.
Maybe this isn’t a disruption.
Maybe it’s an invitation.
From now on, when I wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning, I’m going to think of it this way…
My grandfather just got a page.
And he’s asking me if I want to go with him.
And the answer will always be yes.