The Myth of Yes

I promised her I would be there.

My granddaughter’s class had been practicing their songs for weeks, and she asked me over and over: “You’ll come, right?”

But when a last-minute meeting landed on my calendar, I told myself she would understand. I convinced myself the meeting mattered more. That night, she looked up at me and asked, “Did you see me wave from the stage?”

The ache I felt in that moment was sharper than any pressure I had carried from work. It was not guilt. It was misalignment. I had said yes to urgency and no to presence.

That night, I realized something I will never forget: every yes has a cost. The question is, who is paying for it?