I folded the clean clothes while listening to a podcast and still felt lonely

Dear Delyara, It was a good podcast too. Calm voice, interesting enough to hold my attention, exactly the sort of thing that should have made the task feel less deadening. But halfway through matching socks and shaking out pyjamas, I became aware of a loneliness so ordinary it almost disappeared while I was feeling it. Maybe it was because the whole scene felt so private and repetitive. Me, the pile, the basket, the voice in my ear, the rest of the house moving on elsewhere. Maybe it was because folding clothes is one of those tasks that proves you are needed without necessarily making you feel known. I don’t know. I just know that I stood there with my daughter’s jumper in my hands and felt lonelier than the moment seemed to justify.