The mug I use for the first coffee of the day

There's a particular ceramic mug I reach for before dawn, the one with a chip on the rim that I never fixed. It's not about the coffee — it's about the way the kitchen feels when everyone else is still asleep, and the only sound is the kettle starting to hum. That's the thing I pulled off today: showing up for that quiet moment before the rest of the world demands anything.