With an autoimmune disease, you become extraordinarily aware of how you’re feeling. Most days, I spend my time battling exhaustion and pain. It’s unfortunate because I’ve always been an ambitious person. I want to do more, create more, accomplish more. But I have limitations. Or at least I did, until I discovered steroids.

It’s been raining cats and dogs my entire life. Not the cute kind. The kind that turns the ground to mud, floods the gutters, and leaves you soaked before you’ve even stepped outside. I’m burnt out. Not temporarily, not seasonally. Chronically. I haven’t slept well my entire adult life. I had four children in five years, which meant I was basically pregnant from nineteen to twenty‑four. Then came raising my adorable mob.

I had a dream last night—the kind that lingers, the kind that teaches you something about yourself that’s hard to learn while awake.