Five AM comes way too quick when you stayed up all night at a party. But if there’s one thing that I’m never going to miss, it’s a sunrise. The magic of the moment and the intentions that I set each morning are so important. Ma drilled that into my head when I was younger.

“A girl’s day starts at dawn m’darlin’” she’d say, opening the curtains to show me the colors begin to bleed across the sky.

We’d pad downstairs and she’d put the kettle on. Slipping on our boots, we’d grab our tea and walk to the porch swing. Lighting a candle, Ma would start to set our intentions for the day, whispering words of protection spells and abundance.

I slip my amythest necklace on, smiling at the memory. I do miss Ma and Papa and Violetta. It eats at my heart that I haven’t been back since Audrey. It’s too raw. I don’t know how they can stay there.

As the candle flame flickers low and I sip the last bit of my morning tea, I head downstairs for coffee. Beatrix always laughs that I have tea and coffee in the morning, but she grew up with the same Irish morning rituals as I did.

Coffee in hand, camera bag on my shoulder and sunglasses on, I slip into my car. Today we are working with the hockey team.

Kyah’s day begins late morning as she slowly pulls herself from sleep. Once she gets herself together and up, she begins getting to the Guild Hall and checking in with her colleagues. She gathers intel about events and rumors of the area. She listens to news and reports. She gathers it all.

Early afternoon brings a check in with Walgan. The guild leader often has little for her to do save tidying things as she waits idly, but that’s more her choice than his request. If he has a task, she’ll undertake it immediately as it becomes possible. Otherwise she waits until evening.

Early evening she arrives at the Lavendar Puurse String and begins to tend bar. On occasion she will let loose and dance casually, not as employee, and always fully covered. No matter, the club is a place of secrets and so she gathers more information, more gold, and more importantly, more secrets.

As the club closes, she heads to the southern wall by the western entrance and sits in the crenealtions, watching the sun come up before returning home to sleep.

I wake up to the beautiful sunrise every morning. Next, I get up and walk to my kitchen. I make myself some porridge with blueberries and bananas. Then, I sit down at the table in my dining room and start eating. Then I do the following things in that exact order. First, I brush my teeth, second, I clean the my room, the kitchen and the dining room. Next, I brush my hair. I then go to my desk and open my laptop. After a minute, I start working. My first break is at 09:00. I get going on unfinished projects. After my 09:00 break, I get back to work at 09:35. I then start any meetings or just work alone. I work as a programmer. I eat lunch at 12:00 and get back to work at 13:00. I keep on working until about 17:00. Then, I clean the house, spend some time with friends or family and then get some downtime at 19:00. I eat dinner and get ready for bed. Quick shower, brushing teeth and get my pyjamas on. See you tomorrow!

07:00am: I get up. 07:20am: Get ready for the day. 08:00am: Get to the lab. 08:15am: Work on projects that I need to complete. 09:00am: Small break from all my programming. 09:34am: Back to work. 12:00pm: Wait and see! (Part 2 coming soon)

After the coffee is finished, she strolls about the woods and drinks tea. She likes to go to the woods and clear her mind. It becomes the clarity of her day each morning. She smells the first time of rainfall. It blends to the grass. Also, meditation helps to ease and soothe the stress of her life. Sometimes she goes to yoga before heading to college. She attends school every Tuesday morning and Thursday and Friday evening. She studies sociology and human justice. Her favorite course is philosophy. Today is Thursday so she goes to art history. She has always been an artist and is inspired to be an art therapist. She has been doing lots of paintings and junk journals. She furthermore enjoys songwriting and is a published poet. Art and poetry allow her to express her fears and dreams. She lies awake and stands up with a panic attack and worries about how the world is going to see her. This worry stems from the loneliness of her childhood. She grew up in a foster group home and the supervision was limited. She also has autism and struggles with severe social anxiety. She is a great example of a voice for autism.

Layne wakes up early in the morning so she can have lots of time to get ready for school. After getting up, she gets dressed, brushes her teeth, then goes to the kitchen to eat breakfast with her parents. They all sit at the table together, and Layne’s parents talk to each other while Layne just listens and studies for any upcoming tests. When Layne is done eating, she packs up her school bag, says goodbye to her parents, then leaves.

Layne takes the bus to school, she sits near the front by herself and reads until she gets to school. When she gets inside, she has a bit of free time before having to go to her first class. When she’s in class, she always takes notes on any new topics the teacher brings up. She always sits by herself at lunch, usually in the corner of the cafeteria, away from her more noisy classmates.

Layne takes the bus home in the afternoon as well. When she gets home, if one of her parents is home, she’ll tell them about her day. If not, she’ll go to her room right away and finish any incomplete homework assignments and then study. In the evening, she’ll eat dinner with her parents. After that, she’ll get ready for bed. Layne tries to go to bed early so that she has the energy to wake up early the next morning.

Natalie is just getting out of the shower when she’s hears her phone ringing looking down at the screen she smiles. “Hey dad” She says into the phone. “Are you ready yet I want to get to the office” her dad ask happily. “I just got out of the shower dad” Natalie yells “Your so early, just come up and wait for me.” “I’m already in the living room, I’m making breakfast” Natalie can hear the smile the in his voice. “Ok ok,” she sighed “Ill be out in a sec.” She hung up the phone and heard from her kitchen “hurry up nat” She giggled rushing to dry off, she reached for her clothes getting dressed. Nat pulled her hair out of her towel, tossed it over the sink and walked out to meet her dad for breakfast. When she walked into the living room the smell of sausage and eggs, she walked into the kitchen watching him pull out a couple tortillas. “Breakfast burritos!” Nat shouted “Yes of course” her father said turning around to look at her. He smiled at her putting the tortillas down on the pan, Nat watched as he fished making their breakfast. They ate together talking about work and Nats dinner plans later that night with a few coworkers. Mathew also caught her up with his findings and all the drama in his department of the museum. When they fished breakfast Nat cleaned the kitchen up before they headed out for work together. Natalie’s day was slow, she had no pressing matters to look at for the day so she was mostly talking to her coworkers and visiting her dad, on her slow days she does more of Mathew’s work then her own. On her way out of work with her dad she stopped by josh’s office to find out who was driving for there night out this time, it was apparently Mia’s turn. Mathew drove home and stayed for dinner having more shop talk before Nat had to kick him out to get ready.

Kristie wakes up, she don’t have school because of lack of women rights, then eats bread and cheese her Typical morning starter, then plays chess her favorite game helps mother make dinner, eats talks to mother about her trouble and what’s on her mind reads Mopy Dick and goes to sleep

MN MIA:

Mia wakes up before the sun has even begun to touch the sky. She likes to spend her mornings alone, slowly getting ready for the day. She takes a super hot shower, listening to her favorite playlist. The second she gets out she pours her first cup of coffee. She takes care to complete her skin care routine, curl her hair, and perfect her makeup. Her boyfriend wakes right about the time she goes to the closet to get her outfit for the day. She dresses in something professional and heads to the kitched to grab breakfast. She’ll stop on her way to feed her cat. Breakfast is usually something she can eat in the car (bar or smoothie etc.). She takes a cup of coffee to go, grabs the lunch she packed for herself, grabs her coat, kisses her boyfriend goodby, and heads go the garage. She has a 30 minute drive to work and typically listens to a podcast or audio book on the way. She pulls into her work parking lot about 5 minutes late, heads up to her office to settle in. Work is pretty typical, managing apartments isn’t all that exciting. She always stops for an hour at 1pm to eat her lunch and possibley drive over to Caribou for her 3rd coffee of the day. She likes her job and works hard during the day to stand out in her performance. She has been in her company for less than a year, and is already on track for her second promotion. She’ll sometimes work a bit past 6, but tries not to. She’ll hop in her car and make the 30 minute drive back to her apartment. When she arrives, she will stop in the community clubhouse to change and use the use the gym studio available. Her workout is usually about 40 minutes, but it always seems to take her a full hour to get back home. She she arrives, her fiancé is always home, on the sofa watching something on TV. She greets him, puts her things away, and begins dinner. Her fiancé likely ate already-she’s vegan so they rarely eat together. She’ll whip up something easy, and join him on the sofa where they will watch one of their shows together. They can will come and join them, and the 3 of them will snuggle up on the sofa until precisely 10pm. The two of them will head to the bathroom together to do their nighttime routines and get ready for bed. They always go to bed at the same time. Rest their heads on the pillow, and get ready to do it all again tomorrow.

IN MIA:

Mia wakes up laughably early. She likes to take a few minutes to herself to brush her teeth and start the coffee before waking up the kids. He husband comes down about her 3rd sip of coffee to start getting breakfast ready. They kiss each other good morning and she heads upstairs to wake up the kids. She gets them up and dressed and sends them downstairs to have breakfast. She will then head to the batheroom to get herself ready. She doesn’t have a lot of time, so she will quickly wash her face, pull back her hair, and put on some makeup. When she comes back downstairs, the kids are putting on their shoes, backpacks loaded, lunch boxes in tow, and bellies full. She grabs her things, and a breakfast to go, kisses her husband goodbye, and heads to the garage to load up the kids. They all drive to school together, listening to tunes, singing loudly together the whole way. When they arrive, she heads to her classroom to set up, and the daughters wait with her for the bell to ring so they can head to their own classrooms. Work is typical, She teaches reading, writing, and math to her 2nd grade class until it’s time for them to go home. Her daughters will come to her classroom and ready while she wraps up her day-planning for tomorrow and grading papers. She heads home around 4pm, making the short drive with her worn out kiddos in the backseat. When she gets home, it’s snacks for everyone. Her husband won’t be home until 6:30, so she helps her oldest with homework, and sends them upstairs to (hopefully) play nicely with each other. She always says she’s going to get some housework done before dinner, but usually ends up stealing some time for herself, reading or checking up on her social media accounts. She’ll start dinner around 6-something easy and kid friendly. Her husband comes home just in time to grab a quick kiss, check in on the girls, and have dinner with the family. They eat and laugh and talk about their days. After dinner, they all snuggle up on the couch for exactly one episodee of a TV show before bathtime. While Mia gets the girls ready for bed, her husband will clean up the kitchen and lock up the house. After they kiss the girls good night, they ready themselves for bed, snuggle up in their bed and watch tv before falling asleep.

Another bright morning, Althaea pushed back her duvet and strolled into the jack and jill bathroom that connected to her younger brothers room. From the light beginning to light the sky, she knew it was around dawn. She splashed her face with cold water, quickly freshening up before heading for the closet. She tugged on a worn, hand-me-down dress from her mother, braided back her honey blonde hair and quietly made way downstairs.

She found her mother in the kitchen, her matching hair pulled back as she gathered ingredients to prepare breakfast. “Good morning, mother.” Althaea said softly.

Her mothers eyes lifted, a smile meeting those blue eyes. “Good morning my love, I’m sure your headed for the garden but please- eat something before you go.”

Althaea grabbed an apple from the bowl of fruit sitting between her and her mother on the island counter. Pushing past, grabbing a large basket by the kitchen door, “You know I’m just going to snack as I harvest.”

A soft chuckle escaped her mothers lips, “Honey, I left some silver in your dresser, take it with you and Theo when you two go into the market. Get yourself a book or two while your in town.”

Ah, Theo. Althaea’s closest friend since she could remember. He’d probably be on his way over soon, “Thank you, I’ll be sure to grab one for Jesse, too.” She pecked her mothers cheek before heading out the side door and began harvesting what she could from the garden. She found a few extra large oranges and kept them separated in the basket for Jesse, her younger brother.

As the sun began to rise over the horizon, the morning harvest finishing quickly, the sound of the wooden gate creaked open. She looked over her shoulder to see Theo, carrying a few dozen eggs in another basket.

“Good morning, sunshine. I brought your mother a dozen eggs, figured I had plenty this morning to toss a few more in the usual order of six.” Theo beamed, his shaggy chestnut hair damp with the sweat from his walk to her cottage.

Althaea peered into his basket- the few dozen eggs, three glass jars of fresh milk and a book. “What is that?” She gleamed down at the book, a smile growing on her warm cheeks.

Theo’s smile met hers as he handed over the book, “Just my copy of the book you’ve been eyes in the book shop. I have to apologize, though, I may have read it last night.”

Her eyes narrowed as she flipped through the pages, sighing, “You are insufferable! How am I to form my own opinions when you write your silly little messages in the margins?” He laughed, the smile coming back to her lips as she hit him with the book. “Come on, let me drop this in my room and we can head into town. My mothers in the kitchen, you can say hello before we leave.” She handed her basket to him, grabbing the large oranges.

They strolled back inside, Theo and her mother engaging in a light conversation as she made her way back up to her room, the oranges she set aside in one arm, book in the other. She set the book on her dresser, opening the drawer to find the silver hidden there and stuffed it in her dress pocket. Crossing the jack and jill bathroom, she quickly peaked into Jesse’s room, finding him still asleep, she set the oranges on the bed beside him and made her way back downstairs.

“We will be back for dinner! Love you ma!.” Althaea squealed softly, grabbing Theo’s arm and tugged him to the front door. She attempted to take her basket from him but he insisted carrying both and they began their walk into town to sell what they could.