I put tomorrow’s clothes out tonight because I couldn’t bear a difficult morning

Dear Delyara, That’s one of the strange things about family life. Sometimes your real work is not only what happens today, but the amount of friction you quietly remove from tomorrow before tomorrow gets a chance to become itself. I laid out my work clothes, my daughter’s cardigan, my son’s shirt, checked the weather, found the missing sock, and lined the shoes by the door. None of it was hard. All of it was labour. The kind that doesn’t look like labour because it is made of anticipation instead of movement. I think what made me sad last night was realizing how often I am building softer landings for everyone else while forgetting to ask who builds mine. The answer, very often, is no one. And then I go ahead and do it anyway.