I knew I was done when kindness started sounding expensive

Dear Delyara, That’s the phrase that came to me. Not impossible. Expensive. By evening, even ordinary kindness felt like it would cost too much from the remaining part of me. A thoughtful reply. A softer tone. A patient explanation. None of these are large things. But tonight they all felt like purchases I could no longer make without emotional overdraft. That’s how I knew I had crossed from tired into emptied. I don’t like meeting myself at that threshold. But it helps to name it.