Leo
“Be there before you are needed. That is most of the job.”
Leo, First Light and Steady Paws
Leo is a lion with warm brown eyes and a mane just coming into its fullness. He rises while the world is still blue, because somebody should be awake and watching when the day begins — and Leo decided, long ago, that it might as well be him.
He is not the loudest voice in any story. He is the one still standing in the same place at the end of it. Read down this page and watch: the longer you stay, the more the morning arrives.
THE MORNING WALK WAITS BELOW ↓Walk the Morning With Him
The Training Ground
Before the sun, the training ground is blue and quiet — and Leo is already there. He trained Roman, once. This morning, he trains you.
Three lessons: hold, wait, and choose your road. Each lesson asks twice — and the second time is harder.
Leo’s journey plays right here on this page — the lessons live in the walk itself.
“First light belongs to those who rise for it.”
What the Mornings Taught Leo
One grey morning the wind came down off the hill determined to move everything that could be moved. Leo planted all four paws, leaned in a little, and let it try. The wind tired first. Standing your ground, he will tell you, is mostly deciding beforehand that you will still be there afterwards.
Leo does not wait for the day to tell him what it needs. He is up before it, washed, watching, with his attention already where the day is likely to ask for it. Being ready is a kindness you do for everyone who will need you later — including yourself.
Every morning Leo walks the same round: the hill, the stones, the low path by the water. Nothing is usually wrong. That is not the point. The point is that if anything ever were wrong, he would be the first to know — because he was already there, looking.
AGAIN TOMORROW.