Thin Places & Banana-Blueberry Muffins

I wish 5 am would last forever.

To wake up before the dawn, drink a warm cup of coffee, and watch the sun spread over the city a little more each moment – this is my greatest treasure and pleasure.

My momma used to wake up before the sun in the winter (which isn’t a difficult task in Alaska) to bake banana-blueberry muffins for our guests and the family. I loved to the descend the many flights of stairs in our 3 story house on tiptoe and sit at the bar-style counter in the kitchen. I had a feeling of being on the inside – as if the morning were a secret known only to my mother and I. If anyone else were to wake up and join us, I would have felt the spell break, the holy ground soiled.

In Celtic mythology, there exist spaces called ‘thin places.’ According to Celtic tradition, Heaven and earth are “three feet apart.” In thin places, however, the line is blurred. Here, the atmosphere is almost palpable and every movement is made with the knowledge of the sacred reality all around.

Early mornings are thin places, where the divine is a little bit closer than usual. It makes perfect sense if you really think about it. Mornings are most crucial. How one begins the day can greatly determine the course of the day. If the day begins in a rush of anxiety, the rush may never end. On the other hand, if you take the holiness of that sliver of time and allow it to settle into your mind, into your body, the day will carry something more than the mundane and the systematic.

Those mornings with my mother allowed for that; the memories motivate me to seek those spaces again and again. And banana-blueberry muffins still taste like magic.