The list of things she cared about was longer than any one person could carry.
Field Notes
We often mistake caring for responsibility.
The more aware we become, the more things seem to ask for our attention. The animals. The plants. The people we love. Our health. Our work. The news. The future.
What begins as compassion can slowly become a feeling that we must personally hold everything together.
But many of the problems we worry about exist at scales larger than any individual. They require communities, institutions, and generations of people working together.
The desire to help is beautiful.
The belief that we must carry it all ourselves is what becomes heavy.
Caring matters.
But caring and carrying are not the same thing.