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- 🌅 Made it through the night
🌅 Made it through the night
Karen Choi
June 29, 2025
The saying, “When cardinals appear, angles are near” comforts me.
Most mornings, the neighbourhood birds wake me up before the sun rises.
Robins, cardinals, sparrows, red-winged blackbirds, blue jays, goldfinches. I lie in bed, listening to their dawn chorus.
Scientists believe birds sing most intensely at first light to let their mates know: “I made it through the night. I’m still here.”
They remind me to do the same.
Today’s care kit celebrates survival. Not to be melodramatic, but also, being here is no small thing. Waking up, breathing, beginning again…it all counts.
How will you celebrate your survival today?
🎶 One Song
If you love birdsong and British period dramas, let’s be friends and this piece will feel like waking up in the English countryside.
Completed in 1914 by Ralph Vaughan Williams—just after the sinking of the Titanic and before the world unraveled into the First World War—The Lark Ascending captures a moment suspended between innocence and upheaval. (And how does it still feel that way now?) Set in the same historical window as Downtown Abbey, but instead of aristocrats, estates, and servants, the main character here is a songbird, flying up to the sky.
The piece was inspired by a poem of the same name and you’ll hear its influence in every note. The violin plays two roles: a lark’s delicate song and its soaring flight. Fragile yet free. The orchestra holds the landscape and gives it air.
Loss, longing, and light. A kind of ache and awe of all the feelings that swoop in, first thing in the morning. I hope this one song lifts you up today and throughout the week.
🕊️ Read the full poem here
🎧 Listen to The Lark Ascending
✍️ One Poem
Birdsong of Shaker Way
Every day is perfect, if
when you wake, you hear birds
in the garden, in the yard. Birds
up and down, ushering in one more day
in all the houses on Shaker Way. Birds
on telephone lines, light posts. Birds
twit, twittering on trees
hailing fellow birds
with a nod of  beak—gray kingbird;
top-hatted, streamertail
tuxedoed, doctor bird—
busy-bodied hummingbird
tucking in, out, of pink, red ixoras
punch-drunk in love. Birds
preening for, chatting up other birds—
the oriole, the grass quit, in mid-song
on the lawn, in a dance of  birds
an all-day-long conference of bird;
red-headed woodpecker
—drummer boy, or girl bird
in this daily symphony of  birds
—an orchestra on Shaker Way
in serenade of each perfect day with birds—
from the very first mockingbird
heralding, in solo warble
one more day, filled with birds—
brightened, lightened, trilled by birds:
precious, diamond-throated
sweet song, miracle-toting birds
the-gift-of-day-is-here birds.
Bird, bird, bird. Hello bird.
You lift me up bird.
You sing the day beautiful, bird.
🎧 Listen to the author read the poem. Youʻll hear the birds singing in the background.
〰️ One Move
âś‹ For when you wake. A gentle stretch to fill your body with fresh oxygen and gratitude.
still.
Sit straight.
Place your left hand on your heart and the right hand on your belly.
Close your eyes and hold a light smile.
Notice the rise and fall of your body as you breathe.
Be here for 3 breaths.
move.
With your arms by your side.
On an inhale, slowly raise your arms above your head for a count of 4
On the exhale, slowly lower your arms down back down for a count of 4
Like you have wings and you’re flying up.
Repeat for 8 breaths.
soar.
Raise your wings to shoulder height.
Hold your wings out a slowly sway as you breathe.
Back and forth, side to side.
Be here for 3 breaths.
still.
Raise your arms on an inhale.
Bring your palms together in prayer to heart centre.
What are you grateful for in this moment?
Be here for 3 breaths.
Let’s call this move, I Made It Through The Night, To Sing Another Day.
🪽 Watch this video for a demo. Note: It’s not exactly as described above. Use as a guide and feel free to move in a way that feels true for you.
May you notice the birds, hear your voice, and feel your wings today.
Wishing you pause, presence, and peace.
🫶 Karen
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