Under the Rubble

Shame is heavy.

It doesn’t just sit on your shoulders.

It seeps into your bones.

Shame says:

You are what you did.

Grace says:

You are more than your worst day.

Shame silences.

Grace sings.

And if you lean close enough, beneath everything you thought ruined you, beneath the mistakes, the regret, the names you called yourself in the dark, you may hear something still breathing.

Hope.

Quiet at first.

Almost impossible to hear.

But there.

Still there.

That is the thing about rubble.

It looks like the end of the story.

Until something underneath it moves.