My workday starts at 7 in the morning. This means my commute in the wintertime is a moonlit walk. In the summertime, I get to see the sunrise, leaving pink streaks all through the sky. Because for the past year, I have been working in an office within walking distance of my house. I specifically sought out a role that I could walk to and it’s been everything I wanted it to be in that capacity.

I have changed up my morning routine a couple of times throughout the year. When I first started this job, I had grandiose visions of using my early start time to become hyper-productive. I would wake up at 3 am and, in the hours I had before work I told myself I would workout, read, and learn new skills. Those were my plans, but mostly I just drank black coffee, stared into space, and listened to music. So, I reevaluated, and decided that my ambitious 3 am wakeup was not sustainable (I had also increasingly started sleeping through my alarms).  

Once my plans faded into something more realistic, I started waking up much closer to my start time. I was still making and having coffee at home, and was at least attempting to consume some kind of breakfast before leaving the house. At the end of this era, breakfast had been reduced to protein powder and water in a shaker – rushed out the door and consumed in transit. But the attempt was always there.

During this time, I modified my commute so that I cut through a local park. I loved seeing all of the seasons slowly coming into prominence and passing one right after the other as the months slipped by and the work projects came and went. I began taking this path in the early springtime at the time when my walk was covered in inky darkness and the snow was just starting to thaw. As the months passed, I saw the flowers bloom eventually into green brightness and then again, the many colors of fall, and then, the brutality of winter.

It was during this era that I reached my most recent morning routine. Now that we have made it once again to the dead of winter, I have begun leaving as late as I can. My mornings contain no ceremony or frivolity – I am dressed and out of the door as soon as possible. Now, I have abandoned the park for a different route. This one takes me to a coffee shop which I can stop on along the way, giving me something warm to hold in my hands for the remainder of the journey.

One day soon the flowers will bloom again and I will once again change up my route to see them.