I wanted to be brave, but I was just tired

Dear Delyara, I had something important to do today, and all morning I kept telling myself to be brave. Then at some point I realized the real problem was not lack of courage. It was tiredness. There’s a big difference. I think I’ve spent years misreading exhaustion as weakness. Some days I’m not avoiding things because I’m lazy or cowardly or incapable. Some days I’m simply carrying too much already, and the next thing feels harder because my system is overfull. That realization softened me a little today. I still did the thing. But I did it with more compassion for the state I was doing it in. Maybe that matters too.