Cultures and languages around the world agree that morning is a precious time.
It isn’t just your imagination—morning is a special time. All things are waking, the mind is fresh and unburdened, and even the muses are ready to provide inspiration. Well, at least, that’s the case according to an old Latin proverb.
Our albeit somewhat clunky English saying that “the early bird catches the worm” reflects a long-standing understanding that morning is the hour in which to get things done.
Early to Rise
In Latin, the related muse proverb, dating back at least to the 1500s, is “Aurora musis amica (est),” which means literally, “Dawn is a friend of the muses.” For many of that era, a belief in the muses—goddesses who were sources of inspiration for artists, writers, musicians, and scholars—was very real. And, while the belief may sound a little quaint to many of us today, perhaps the concept was not unlike our idea of angels.
