Building Support That Holds You
Last year, I lost my mother. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have a strong and loving support system. So many people showed up for me — checking in, listening patiently, sitting with my grief. But grief doesn’t follow a schedule. It doesn’t politely confine itself to the early weeks or to daylight hours. Sometimes it hits in the middle of the night. Sometimes it circles back to the same thoughts, the same stories, the same ache. And in those moments, I’m reminded that even the most caring people have human limits — not because they don’t care, but because they have their own lives, responsibilities, and emotional bandwidth. No one person — or even a group of people — can indefinitely carry the full weight of someone else’s inner world. Coincidentally, over time, I realized that, without fully noticing it at the moment, I had been leaning on a few resources — books, routines, moments of reflection — that were quietly helping me build a broader support system. And that’s when a deep...