This Is Why We’re Tired

Hi Reader,

The headaches, the scratchy throat, the heaviness in my body—I chalked it up to a week driving through Olympic and Mt. Rainier National Parks with my cousin Gina, breathing in forests thick with allergy-inducing summer blooms. We went on a whale-watching tour, saw a humpback and four different orca pods, and made a mountain of fused glass projects at MoltenWorks. We were tired, sure. But it all felt manageable. Normal.

The congestion and coughing started later. Annoying, yes, but nothing that screamed sick instead of the allergies we’re both so used to. It was only as I started to feel better that I thought: maybe I should test.

And then today, I tested positive for COVID.

This is my second time. Both after being fully vaccinated. And I’m okay—because of those vaccines that greatly reduce symptoms.

On a networking call this morning, someone asked what we were grateful for. My first thought? The COVID vaccines. They let us leave our homes. They let us reconnect. They gave so many of us freedom back.

I’m so grateful for that freedom.
And I’m also so angry.

Angry that something so safe, so deeply tested, and so clearly beneficial has become a battleground. Angry that anti-vaxxers and misinformation campaigns have cost lives. Angry that here, in one of the richest nations on Earth, universal, taxpayer-funded healthcare is still out of reach for so many.

This is why we’re tired.

Tired of systems that don’t protect us.
Tired of being told to bootstrap our way through broken infrastructure.
Tired of fighting for care that should be a given.
Tired of having to prove we’re worthy of rest.

We navigate healthcare in fragments—some of us with privilege, others left to fight for scraps. And support for your inner life? For your leadership, clarity, and emotional well-being? That often gets pushed aside too—not because it’s out of reach, but because we’ve been conditioned to deprioritize it. To believe we should figure it out alone. To wait for a breakdown before seeking a breakthrough.

We don’t always recognize when we need support. We tell ourselves it’s just a hard season, just allergies, just one more week we can push through. There’s no simple test that says, “Yes, now’s the time.” But that doesn’t mean we don’t need help.

We resist what could help us. We delay care—emotional, physical, strategic—until we’re worn down. We wait for proof that it’s “bad enough.”

But coaching isn’t just about crisis. It’s about prevention. It’s about restoration. It’s about reclaiming your breath before you run out of air.

If this resonates—if you’re holding it all together and wondering when it’ll be your turn to exhale—come sit with me.

Join a Dragon Drop-In Circle or book a 1:1 Clarity Call: https://befriendingdragons.com/meet​

You don’t need to wait for a test to know you’re ready.