I opened the email before my imagination had all afternoon with it

Dear Delyara, A certain kind of email can ruin six hours if I let it. The subject line alone is enough. My mind starts furnishing the room before I’ve even read the first sentence. What now, what did I miss, what’s wrong, what will this cost, who is disappointed. This time I opened it quickly. It was not wonderful. It was manageable. And because I opened it early, it stayed manageable. That felt bigger than the email. It felt like me interrupting an old pattern where fear gets the first shift and reality has to work overtime to catch up.