I answered the message I had been afraid to open all morning

Dear Delyara, It sat there on my phone like a private threat, even though I knew rationally that it could have been anything. By 11 a.m. I had already imagined three unpleasant possibilities and one expensive one. By noon, I was more tired from not opening it than I probably would have been from the actual content. So I opened it. Read it. Answered it. It was manageable. Of course it was. I am trying to respect the kind of courage that does not look cinematic. Just one person, one message, one interruption of a useless fear pattern before it takes the whole day.