I needed help moving something heavy a while back.

It was a two minute job for someone with the right tools.

I sat with the thought of asking for almost a week.

Kept rehearsing how I'd phrase it. Kept thinking of reasons it wasn't urgent. Kept nearly hurting myself trying to do it alone instead.

When I finally asked, the person said "of course, why didn't you just say sooner?"

I didn't have a good answer.

Just the old familiar feeling that asking for something, even something small, was somehow too much.