Hey Stress, Let's Talk

Thank you all for your incredible outpouring of kindness this past week. Writing to you all about the death of my Dad – sharing the realities of our messy beautiful lives is one of the gifts of this community – really healed a piece of my grief. I won’t keep our focus on this subject next week, but wanted to see if I could return the gift a bit with one other truth I’m reminded of daily right now. You gotta slow down to speed up when you’re struggling.

What doesn’t matter and what I can’t control

Burnout is contagious. Frustration is contagious. Fatigue is contagious. Most people have no idea it's happening to them until they're already in it, sitting in a meeting, a conversation, a staff room, a family dinner, absorbing someone else's exhaustion without realizing they've taken it on as their own. So before we talk about how to help that person, the first question is simpler and more urgent: