4. Shame and Meeting my Best Friend, Maura

An essay on shame, the lies I told because of it and meeting my best friend, Maura, for the very first time.

I can feel myself slowly coming home to myself. I feel it in the ease of my breath, in the energy in my step and in the glimmers of joy that this past week has held – a hike with both girls and my camera, scouting peepers and salamanders with my family, dancing unabashedly in the very weights class that used to scare me and laughing with a friend over t…