Sunrise Salutations - The mostly early morning ramblings of an eternal optimist.

I’ve recently completed an almost two year passion project with the launch of my first published book. Sunrise Salutations is a compendium of good morning tweets I’ve been extending to whoever may be listening since way back in 2009.

I’ll republish the Intro along with a few of the thematic chapters here and you’re more than welcome to grab a full copy in ebook or paperback format via sunrise-salutations.com. Or feel free to wish me and the rest of the Twitterverse a hearty GOOD MORNING if you’re so inclined. Would be nice to see a little more positivity there from time-to-time.

INTRO

Good Morning! Two simple words which, when uttered with sincerity, can set the tone for someone’s entire day. How many times do you say “Good Morning”? To the person you wake up next to. To family members when you first catch a glimpse of each other around the house. To colleagues when you arrive at the office or an early online meeting. To the person behind the counter at the coffee shop or coming to your table to take your breakfast order. To the person you walk, jog or run by on the sidewalk who is also begrudgingly out for their a.m. exercise. Good mornings are all about making human connections. Expressing appreciation for the now and optimism for what lies just ahead. Good mornings feel good to both give and receive.

Soon after I logged into Twitter for the first time way back on Wednesday, March 25, 2009, under the nondescript handle JRiddall, I decided it was important to extend a positive morning salutation to whoever may be listening. Little did I know then how vital spreading positivity on Twitter would become. On April 10th, I posted “Happy Good Friday all” and kicked off what would become an almost obsessive-compulsive daily ritual of sending my small corner of the world a bit of day breaking joy, humour, hope, inspiration, affirmation or just plain poppycock.

Over the next 9 years, I would issue 3,186 pre-noon transmissions (though some cut it close to the daily 12:00pm deadline depending on the prior evening’s activities.) I am most proud of a 3/12 year stretch between December 9, 2012 and June 23, 2016, where I did not miss a single day; regardless of my physical location or condition. Yup, 1281 consecutive days of mostly well wishes to whoever was paying even the slightest attention. Some were admittedly delivered with a hint of self-justified sarcasm.

In the early days, with a very limited following, my greetings were likely akin to the sound of trees falling in the forest. Words floating lifeless in the ether. Likewise, as a novice tweeter, the message quality was initially bland and lacked substance.

But, as my legion of faithful followers grew, through my personal and business relationships, and my confidence in the social platform blossomed, my prose took a distinct turn for the better. I became committed to making the most of the 140 characters allowed (yes, it doubled to 280 in November 2017, which drastically lessened the challenge) and avoiding duplication, as if someone would call out my unoriginality. My sunup soliloquies began taking on more contextual tones related to the mood of the day or current events, introducing literary devices like alliteration and encouraging conversation/engagement. I started to get positive reactions and responses to my early exuberant exhortations. A few regular followers retorted with their own good mornings and thanked me for their virtual wake up calls.

Over time, I had a few people suggest I should put my daybreak ramblings into a book. The suggestion stuck with me for a few years until I finally found the time, energy and motivation to download, review and sort my entire archive of 41,000+ tweets with a goal of transcribing the best and brightest. “Gold, pure GOLD Jerry,” as George Castanza or Kramer may announce. A labour of love to be sure and a refreshing beacon of light in the pandemic darkness for me and hopefully a few of you.

Going through the list was like looking at an old family photo album and recalling major life moments; birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, victories, defeats and historic happenings like elections, social protests, sports league championships or apocalyptic fears fueled by a group of ancient Mayans.

I’ve tried to organize my forenoon thoughts here under a few different themes. I have messages related to days of the week, holidays, letters of the alphabet, puns (which are near and dear to my heart), rhymes, animals, food, a bunch of pure nonsense and some of my personal favourites. Many of these are likely only funny or amusing in my slightly twisted mind. Others contain dated pop culture references like events, bands or songs, which will undoubtedly reveal my age. All are and were delivered mindfully and from the heart.

I can’t recall exactly why, but I decided to curtail my daily ritual on December 1, 2018 with this little gem, “Don't be comin' at us this early with no frakkin marmalade.” It was a good run and provided me with plenty of ammunition for a volume or two of interesting, if not, entertaining gibberish. Most of what’s here only took me into 2016, so there’s even more GOLD on the horizon.

I share these greetings openly and welcome you to extend them whenever and wherever you see fit. I’ve also included a section at the end of each section for you to jot down your own salutations for future reference or sharing. Hoping we can work together to kickstart more mostly happy days with a few words of motivation, encouragement or simple silliness.