The Hearth

When something breaks in your family, in your friendships, at your work, every head turns to you, because you are the first to stand up and the one who always makes things right.

Over time, you have begun to feel isolated and alone. Because when you look around for someone to hold you, the emptiness of your cup feels like a bottomless well.

So you learned to need nothing out loud. You made yourself the steady one, the strong one, the one who figures it out, because somewhere you decided that being needed was safer than needing. So you give, and you give, and you call the exhaustion love, and you tell no one that you are starving at your own table.

Sometimes it gets so bad that you break down. Your body starts to fail, your mind loses its edge, and you crack. You lose yourself in an outburst, then become ashamed, sew up all the pieces again, and try to carry on.

Your care is a gift, real and rare. Care became a cage when it lost consent, reciprocity, and rest. It is a gift when you ...