High fit

Emotional Availability tracks whether a caregiver can be reached and can show up without shutting down. When Bob Byrd's mother heard the statue shatter and saw the broken pieces, her initial response — the howl, the gut-wrenching sobs — signaled shutdown, and Bob read it as confirmation that he was unreachable to her. Her availability dial then moved sharply: she located him, got on her hands and knees in the mud, and delivered a message that was fully present to his experience rather than to her own grief. The shift was from unavailable-in-grief to fully present in under minutes, and Bob registered it immediately.