The house feels different when you're the first one awake.
No one is looking for anything yet. There are no questions coming from another room, no doors opening and closing. For a few minutes, even the kitchen seems quieter than usual.
You put the kettle on. While it heats, you open the curtains and let the morning into the room. Maybe breakfast is nothing more than toast and eggs. Maybe there's fruit on the counter from yesterday. Tea goes into a cup you've probably used hundreds of times.
Soon you can smell it before you take the first sip.
"Some of the best parts of a morning happen before anyone thinks the day has started."
Before Everyone Wakes Up
There is a small window of time between waking up and the house becoming busy.
You hear the kettle click off. A spoon touches the side of a cup. Bread goes into the toaster. Outside, the street is beginning to move, but inside there is still time to sit down.
Then you hear the first footsteps. Someone walks into the kitchen half-awake. Another person will be looking for something they were supposed to put away the night before. Breakfast gets bigger, cups appear on the counter and the quiet kitchen you had ten minutes ago is gone. That's usually how the day begins.
Breakfast Doesn't Need Much
Some mornings have pancakes, fruit and enough time to sit around the table. Others have toast eaten while somebody is packing a bag. Both are still breakfast.
What makes the slower mornings nice isn't a perfect table or a long list of things to do before 8am. Sometimes it's having enough time to finish your tea while it's still hot.
Maybe you make another cup and stay at the table a little longer because nobody needs to leave just yet. Those are often the mornings we remember without trying to.
Before the Day Gets Loud
Eventually the cups need washing. Phones start ringing. Someone has somewhere to be. The house moves on.
But for a little while that morning, there was warm tea, something to eat and nowhere else you needed to be.
Tomorrow morning, put the kettle on again.
