Being the bigger person shouldn't make you smaller.

There's a kind of exhaustion that doesn't show up in wellness articles: the bone-deep tiredness of always being the bigger person. The one who stays calm. The one who rises above. The one who makes room for everyone else's pain.

It looks like strength from the outside. From the inside, it can feel like shrinking — like there's less and less room left for you.

Being gracious is good. Being endlessly available for everyone's storms at the cost of your own roots is not.

You're allowed to have limits. You're allowed to let someone else be the bigger person for once. Shelter others, yes — but not until you disappear.