Low Country novelist Josephine Humphreys: 'Morning is my time'

Low Country novelist Josephine Humphreys recently posted this on Facebook. It's a fine example of how writers think and how the mind mulls things during the night. Humphreys, who studied under Reynolds Price as a Duke undergraduate, is the author of "Dreams of Sleep," "The Fireman's Fair," "Rich in Love," and "Nowhere Else on Earth."

Morning is my time. Sometimes when I wake up so many thoughts crowd my brain that I can’t keep up with them. It’s as if they’ve been backing up all night and finally see a chance to rush through the Consciousness Gate. So this morning I woke up suddenly remembering and pondering something someone said last week. She was telling about the bad day she’d had, and ended by saying, “I’m not as sad as I feel.” At the time I thought she’d probably meant to say, “I’m not as sad as I sound.” But somehow, during the night my brain reprocessed the words, and I woke up thinking what a profound statement that was. And I will take it to heart.