Burn Out

Can drinking a gallon of sweet tea be self-care? The answer might surprise you.

Actually, a lot of things can be good for you, on the right day, if you don’t look at them too closely.

Like screaming motherfucker in your car over and over.

Killing a housefly with your bare hand.

Reading a letter from a friend.

Deleting a distracting app from your phone.

Telling a coworker, for the second time this week, that the meetings are killing you.

Cutting the sleeves off a T-shirt from a place you haven’t worked at in four years.

Because maybe you’re a cutoff-sleeve tank gal now, but there’s only one way to know, and that’s to try.

Or deciding tonight is a hot-dog night and your husband can adjust.

Or not starting a fight by saying, “Just a reminder: you can cook too.”

Sometimes self-care is swallowing the mean little sentence whole.

Because he can,

and he could,

and he sometimes does.

Letting inside thoughts stay inside. Not airing every feeling the second it arrives. Trying anger or disgust on in different sizes before committing to one, if at all.

There are a million ways to keep yourself from catching fire and not burning out.

Might as well try them all.