I was working on my new website when I felt it.
A tightening in my chest.
My breath went shallow.

Fear

The fear of not getting it right.
The fear of being judged.
The fear of wasting my time.

As if there is a right.
As if love needs permission.

A couple of months ago, our dryer started making a terrible screeching sound. At first, I tried to ignore it. It was early summer—good drying weather. Besides, with just my partner and me at home now, we don’t go through that much laundry. I thought, why not use the sun?

So we did. We dried our towels outside. They came in stiff and scratchy—like sandpaper on skin. Not terrible, if that’s your thing. But I missed the soft warmth of a dryer.