When the Cup Runs Empty

Today’s tea tastes a little different. It’s not the warm, soul-settling kind – it’s the kind that sits quietly in your hands, waiting. Waiting for you to breathe. To cry. To feel everything you’ve been pushing down, just to keep peace in a house that doesn’t always feel like home.

I woke up with a weight I couldn’t name at first, but I knew it had been building. A quiet sadness. A bitter ache. The kind that doesn’t scream, but sits in the corners of your heart, quietly asking: “When will someone notice that you’re not okay?”

I realised today that what hurts the most isn’t just feeling taken for granted. It’s that I’ve stopped allowing myself to feel taken for granted, because I’ve convinced myself I shouldn’t. That it’s part of being a mum. A woman. A giver.

So I sat with myself and didn’t try to fix the sadness. I let it speak.

It told me I’m tired of being everything to everyone. It told me I’m holding in too much, too often. It told me I don’t want to be the version of me who overfunctions just so others can feel comfortable.

It told me I miss being seen.

And the truth is – sometimes the people we love the most are the ones who hurt us most deeply, not out of cruelty, but out of blindness. They forget our humanity. Our heart. Our quiet sacrifices.

But I won’t forget.

Today, my cup is empty. And I can feel the cracks in the bottom from all the times I’ve poured anyway. Today, I give myself permission to pause. To not do. To not tend. To not perform emotional labour for those who take me for granted.

My only responsibility today is to myself.

I don’t need to explain that to anyone.

Sometimes the bravest thing we can do is not hold it all together. Sometimes the strongest thing we can do is fall apart, gently, and be with the truth of our heart.

And here’s mine:
I need quiet.
I need space.
I need to put myself first, for once, without apology or performance.

So tonight, I will sit with my own soul. I’ll pour a cup of tea not to soothe, but simply to witness myself. I won’t ask for answers. I’ll just let the moment be what it is – messy, real, sacred.

Because even when I feel broken, I’m still whole.
Even when I feel empty, I’m still enough.
And even when no one else notices, I see myself. I’ve got me.

And that… that is everything.

Because healing isn’t always about moving forward – it’s sometimes about finally choosing you.

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