There's our Machiavelli! You know I've been looking for you!
I am ALL ABOUT that first smoke in the morning. No sooner am I out of bed than I'm (um, WAS) on the balcony of my apartment, getting that indescribable first high of the day. Nothing in the world like it. I would stand on my balcony, clad almost like the dancing in undies person, just loving those first hits. Weather was so NOT a factor.
But Mach, it's all wrong. It's a fun high, but ultimately it's a LOW that will kill you.
My deal, Machiavelli, and I don't know if it will work for you, is not highs and lows, but steady. Steady, early mornings and late nights, SO trumps the cheap and tawdry nicotine highs that I can't even begin to describe the ineffable joys of steadiness.
My other deal, with a nod to my buddy Dunedude and his focus on bodily functions, is that the first smoke of the day got my system um, "moving." Not so. The system regulates itself far more effectively without the help of outside narcotic influence. Never have I felt or functioned better than without that ridiculous drug.
Sorry to run on, but the other thing is this: the sacred first smoke of the morning sets the tone for the whole day, right? A "good smoke" means a good day. Yikes. We know what a lie THAT is!! Instead, try this: Your day starts when you wake up. It continues when you get out of bed and do whatever you do in the morning. Stopping to smoke DISRUPTS your day and introduces everything you don't want.
Refusing to smoke gives your early morning an integrity and fluidity that you would never enjoy otherwise.
Embrace the morning smoke free, and you will find that they day flows effortlessly from waking to sleeping without the insane interruptions for nicotine. After a brief time of adjustment, our days flow one into the next. Our very worst enemy is that first smoke of the morning... my erstwhile most deceptive and insidious "best friend."
Machiavelli, no one loved that first smoke of the day more than I. No one, ever. But now even I have come to see that it is as evil and manipulative as the curious name you have taken on: it seeks to control us who were born and destined to freedom. The sacred first smoke was the first one I most happily kicked in the ash and lived not only to tell the tale, but to spread the gospel of freedom. The first smoke just ruins your whole day, Machiavelli. Don;t take it, and have a great day!!
peteg
