There's a version of kindness that quietly hollows you out. You say yes when you mean no, you make yourself available past the point where there's anything left to give, and somehow you've convinced yourself that this is the generous thing to do.
I find myself wondering whether real kindness — the kind that actually helps someone — requires a degree of firmness underneath it. Like the cup needs to be solid to hold anything worth offering.
So the question I'm putting out here: where have you learned to draw that line? Was there a moment when you said no and it cost you something — a friendship, a sense of yourself as a good person — and did that cost turn out to be worth it?
And did you find, on the other side, that being firmer made you kinder, or did something get lost?
I'm genuinely curious what people have found. There's no tidy answer waiting from me.