I found a grape in my coat pocket at work

Dear Delyara, I was reaching for my pass in the staff room and pulled out one soft green grape, slightly squashed, probably pushed in there by my daughter yesterday when she decided she was “saving one for later.” I stared at it and suddenly felt that strange overlap between being a mother and being a person at work pretending to be fully separate from home. It made me smile first. Then it made me sad. Because so much of my life feels like that now. Domestic fragments appearing in professional spaces. The evidence of care following me around quietly. A sock in the car, a spoon in the handbag, a grape in the pocket. It’s as if I can never fully put one life down before I pick the other up. I threw the grape away. I kept the feeling.