The Weight You Put Down

A question worth sitting with: which of the things you're carrying did somebody actually hand you, and which did you pick up on the way past because nobody else was going to?

Most of us are holding at least two or three things in the second category. A family worry. A grudge on someone else's behalf. A standard that belonged to a person who isn't even in your life any more.

You are allowed to set those down. Not confrontationally, not as an announcement. Just stop carrying them, and see whether anyone actually notices.

Usually they don't. It was only ever you holding it up.

— Ané