There’s a limit to how much you can hold before things start to slip. I’m still trying to find that limit, trying to tell the difference between commitment and slow collapse.

Not everything that depends on you deserves to. Care isn’t proof of strength when it empties you; it’s just another way of losing shape.

I don’t want to give up – I just don’t want to disappear inside the keeping. Some things need to stand on their own, or not at all. Maybe the next version of care is lighter – not about carrying everything, but about walking beside what can move with me.