My favorite station is BBC Radio 6 Music, in particular Shaun

"My favorite station is BBC Radio 6 Music, in particular Shaun Keaveny’s morning show. It’s on while I’m dashing around getting ready. He’s a comedian and really makes me laugh, and I love his choice of music—often bands I’ve never heard before." Thus spoke Charlotte Ritchie, with words that at first seem casual, light, even fleeting. Yet within them lies a truth both timeless and profound: that the morning, which shapes the spirit of the day, is nourished not only by food or labor, but by laughter, discovery, and the rhythms of music.

To awaken to a voice that makes one laugh is to awaken not only the body but the soul. The comedian’s humor is more than jest; it is medicine for the heart. In the uncertainty and hurry of the morning, when one “dashes around getting ready,” stress and haste can steal the day before it even begins. But a single joke, a well-timed burst of laughter, restores balance. It says: yes, the world is heavy, but joy is still within reach. Ritchie reminds us that even as we prepare for duty, we must not forget to prepare our spirits with lightness.

And then there is the music—the ever-new, the unheard, the unexpected. To hear bands “never heard before” is to be reminded that the world is vast, that discovery is always waiting, and that even in the routines of daily life, the unknown may break through with wonder. The ancients, too, knew this power. Did not the Greeks begin their rituals with the lyre and the flute, believing that music could harmonize the soul with the cosmos? Did not the Hebrews sing psalms at dawn, their voices rising with the sun? To start the day with music is to align one’s heart to something greater than oneself.

History offers us a mirror in the life of Johann Sebastian Bach. Each morning he rose and poured his devotion into the notes of a harpsichord or organ, often composing works for the church or for his household. His mornings were filled not with silence but with creation, and through that ritual, he gave birth to melodies that still breathe centuries later. Bach did not wait for inspiration to strike him at random; he bound his mornings to music, and by that rhythm, he sanctified his days. Charlotte Ritchie, in her own way, does the same: she allows the laughter and the songs of others to infuse her daily preparation with vitality.

The quote, then, is not merely about a radio station, but about the importance of shaping the atmosphere of one’s mornings. If you allow silence and dread to fill your space, the day will feel heavy. If you allow joy, music, and discovery to enter, then even hurried preparation becomes a dance rather than a burden. The lesson is that we have the power to set the tone of our days—not always through great deeds, but through the small rituals we choose.

The lesson is clear: curate your mornings with intention. Choose what enters your ears, your mind, and your heart as you prepare for the day. Let laughter be your companion, let music be your guide, let discovery remind you that life is wide and full of unseen horizons. If the ancients greeted the dawn with song, why should we not do the same, whether through a live musician, a radio host, or a playlist of voices new and old?

Practical action is simple: as you rise, choose your atmosphere with care. Turn on the voices that uplift you, the sounds that awaken your joy, the melodies that stretch your imagination. Do not let your mornings be claimed by chaos or dread. Instead, let them be shaped by humor, music, and the reminder that each day is an opportunity to laugh, to learn, and to live fully.

Thus Charlotte Ritchie speaks across the generations: to laugh in the morning is to shield the heart, and to hear new music is to awaken the soul. Let each of us, then, craft our mornings not only with clean clothes and hurried tasks, but with joy and discovery, so that the day may begin not as a weight, but as a gift.