You stop at the supermarket on the way home.
It’s crowded. The line is slow. By the time you leave, you’re hungry and your feet hurt. On the walk home, it starts raining.
None of it is a big deal.
When you get home, you put the bags on the counter. Someone asks you a simple question.
“What do you want to do about dinner?”
You don’t know.
They ask again.
“I don’t know. I just got home.”
The irritation in your voice surprises both of you.
Later, it seems ridiculous. It was a simple question. There was no reason you couldn’t answer it.
But the question wasn’t the only thing happening when you were asked.
The crowded store was still there. So was the waiting, the hunger, the aching feet, the rain, and everything else that had happened that day.
The question was simply the next thing.
When a response seems bigger than what just happened, it can be useful to look a little farther back.
What were you already carrying when this began?
Sometimes the conditions you’re working with began long before the moment that got your attention.