I realised at lunch that I was still wearing yesterday’s earrings

Dear Delyara, Not because I was trying to be stylish in some repeated way. I just genuinely forgot. I had done the school run, answered emails, put a wash on, remembered the library book, and dealt with one child’s missing water bottle before 9 a.m., and apparently my own face had not made it high enough up the priority list for me to notice. I caught my reflection in the microwave door while heating soup and thought, yes, that makes sense. Some days I am living so practically that my own body becomes background scenery. I don’t mean in a tragic way. Just in the way so many women drift through busy weeks — maintained enough to pass, but not really attended to from the inside. The funny thing is, I almost admired myself for the efficiency of it all. Then I felt a little sad. I think there is a quiet loneliness in repeatedly being the last person you remember to check on, even when that person is you.