I will no longer lightly walk behind

Every day you learn that you can, in fact, be angrier and more exhausted. And so every day you learn how not to let the anger and the exhaustion win.

Joy is an act of resistance. And so you read to your niece and nephew. You buy gifts for friends. You ride bikes. You throw yourself into small chores (watering plants! rearranging spice shelves! dusting!). You read books. You watch well-written animated series. You get very into essential oil diffusers (again).

You decline the speaking events and the panels organized by the folks trying to ~diversify their perspectives~. You say no, thank you to the social obligations at the end of every infinitely long day. You declutter and simplify.

You acknowledge the months-long backlog of email and you acknowledge that you are choosing to be able to carry on.