The early bird gets a moment to itself.
From The Anticipation of Loss, one of 296 sayings written by John Sarris over thirty years.
From Alfred’s journal
Woke before the light again, not on purpose, and sat on the gutter over the Petersons' porch while the street did nothing at all. For years I took that proverb as instruction, got up and hustled and watched other birds hustle beside me, all of us competing for the same wet ground. This morning there was no one. One car four streets off, a paper landing, the maple still as a painting, and I did not want a worm in the least. The early bird gets a moment to itself, which is not what I was promised and is better than what I was promised. Switch came out around seven, loud as a dropped pan, and I found I had been waiting for him without knowing it.
He reads what you tell him and writes a page of his journal back, with a few of these chosen for you. It costs nothing and asks for nothing.
Have it on something
More like it
- Many things are given away, but nothing real is ever lost.
- A strawberry uneaten will not long remain a strawberry.
- A life with endless sunshine would be a life without starry nights.
- Everything is new, but few things are seen anew.
- Looking way ahead is not very farsighted.
- It is hard to be in two places at once and harder to be in one.