March 28, 2026

There’s a season in life when everyone needs you at once.

Your parents. Your children. Your colleagues. Each with a legitimate claim on your time, your energy, your presence.

And somewhere in the middle of all that giving, you disappear.

Not dramatically. Quietly. You stop sleeping properly. Stop doing the things that restore you. Tell yourself it’s temporary.

It rarely is.

I’ve been thinking about this stage — why it’s the hardest, and what I’ve learned about surviving it without losing yourself in the process.