indebtedness and hibernation

I can give. I can totally make cookies and casseroles; I can take pictures and babysit. But I can't handle the feeling of knowing how big I "owe" someone. The irony is, as we all know, that when you truly love someone, you never consider any of the giving you do. Never count it, never add it up, never keep track.

But, oh, the minute I owe someone. It's like a sticky note taped to the front of my brain. I count it and re-count it; add it and re-add it, repeatedly wondering how to make it up to them. Hypothetically speaking, how many chocolate melts do you give someone when you're gone an hour and a half longer than you said? And they have your child, and take her trick-or-treating to a Halloween party for you?

Oh, please, someone give me the correct answer. Because now every time I think about it (which, with the sticky note, is pretty often) I want to crawl under a chair and hibernate.