I Am the Emotional Cushion

Dear Delyara, I soften things before they land. I translate one person’s tone for another. I absorb tension before it becomes visible conflict. I think ahead emotionally so the room stays safer than it would be if I stopped paying attention for even one evening. And because I do that well, people rarely see it happening. They only see the family “working.” But I know. And my body knows. It knows the cost of constantly buffering everyone else’s feelings while having too few places to put my own. It knows how tiring it is to be the cushion and never the one falling into something soft yourself.