The laundry basket looked heavier than it was

Dear Delyara, I know that because I picked it up and was surprised. What felt heavy was not really the washing. It was everything I attached to it before lifting it — the folding, the sorting, the putting away, the reminder that people in this house continue changing clothes and producing fabric whether or not I have recovered from the last load. By the time I touched the basket, my body had already reacted to the meaning of it. That’s something I’ve been noticing more. Some domestic things exhaust me visually before they exhaust me physically. The sight of what still needs doing lands first. The labour comes after. I carried it upstairs anyway. But the real weight had already happened in my head.