I feel like I’ve spent my whole life tiptoeing around family members’ rejection sensitivity. I’ve watched my partner do the same with his parents.
We exhaust ourselves and make weird decisions because we are trying so hard to keep them from feeling rejected.
But other people’s sensitivity to feeling rejected is not our responsibility to manage.
That’s what I’m trying to learn.
Your thin skin, so rejection-prone, is not actually my own emergency to manage. I cannot heal your damage, and I only harm me by trying to be your sunscreen.
Stay safe in this heat, everyone!
In the notebook
