I’m not sure what it is about distance running, or whether it’s really the cause at all, but, lately, I’ve been getting up and going to bed with the sun. More accurately, I’ve been doing so slightly earlier. Each morning, when wondering whether I should really get up, I adore being greeted, gently and cheerfully, by a pre-dawn chorus that, in the dark, helps let me know it’s time.

This was not always the case as, for almost all of my adult life I’ve naturally been a night owl regardless of efforts to change. Having pondered the significance of the transformation for weeks, I’ve come to the conclusion that my assigned shift must simply have moved a bit.

And I love the thought, actually. That we all have a purpose at every moment makes perfect sense to me, though, of course, certain instants in individual lifetimes carry momentous weight.

Like many people, I’ve felt honored to be able to reflect on the contributions of extraordinary men, including my grandfather, on the beaches of Normandy 80 years ago this week. How did such young boys (many, as in my family, teenagers when they started training) accomplish such a momentous task requiring practically all they had – physically, emotionally, and mentally – day after day after day throughout the long war?

I felt deeply touched to hear “The Watch” broadcast from France, knowing that the comfort it has imparted to thousands of veterans over the decades is rooted in the authority of those who do stand guard over the free world today.

“The watch stands relieved,” they are told, correctly.

But this is not the message many Americans carry in their hearts today. There seems to be ongoing need for so much change and no outward assurance much-needed work to shore up our democracy is being done. And as I still believe this work lay in the disentanglement of our news and stock market sectors, I continue to believe an essential step remains simply raising the issue.

At the beginning of the women’s movement in corporate journalism, I recall feeling an inward need to speak up about my experience in news and, finally, recognizing how important it was to stick with this feeling of being guided within my own heart. Wait, no one told me about this, I recall thinking at first. Am I supposed to take part? Hold on, am I the quarterback? But I knew I couldn’t be; I don’t even really know what that is.

I still wonder, but perhaps most essential is making a point, not of listening to, but ignoring, the whiplash “it’s too early!” then, immediately, “it’s too late!” calls seeming to come primarily from corporate Hollywood organizations, especially just before and after one particularly enormous Blackstone sale, culminating in a resounding “stand down.” But on what authority? Thank God no one ever actually threw them the ball.

I still wonder about whether there remains an opportunity to raise the question of publicly-traded news corporations’ constitutionality and to do so helpfully. But whatever form opportunities take in my life to contribute meaningfully, I look forward to being able to do so and am grateful to have quiet time to listen first thing these days for guidance with a willingness to take action when needed.

Others certainly have done the same for me.