I went to sleep feeling more useful than loved

Dear Delyara, I had been needed all day in very visible ways. At work, at home, with the children, with the practical side of life, with tomorrow already knocking. I did useful things from morning to night. I solved, found, replied, cleaned, remembered, carried, softened, signed, checked, drove, fed. And by bedtime, I could feel the strange emptiness that comes when usefulness has had far more room in your day than tenderness. I know I am loved. Yesterday I mostly felt used. That is a hard difference to admit. It was still true.