Secrets

Sorry, I'm not sharing my secrets. Snicker.

I met a young women recently. A beautiful young woman. Her eyes were bright. I can't explain it really, they were just filled with a brightness that I cannot explain.

Such a pretty girl.

We chatted about this and about that. The suddenly, out of the clear blue, she told me her secret.

"I spent seven years as a meth addict. I've been clean for five."

She smiled shyly at me. My gaze swept over her polished nails, her diamond wedding ring, and her silk blouse.

This is not the face of a former meth addict.

And yet, it was.

Even now, I wonder why she shared her secret with me. She doesn't know me. Why, we'd only just met and yet she confided something personal to me and I am still awe struck.

Not too long after this conversation, I had learned another secret. One that tore my heart. A friend told me something hard, something devastating, something so vile that her family may never recover from it.

As amazing as it sounds, I was shocked into silence. I truly had no words to describe how I felt.

I think women carry a great many secrets. I think we bury them, smiling and showing the world how "normal" we are. We hide them away hoping to bury the pain and grief with them.

And yet...when we share a secret, somehow our burden is lightened. Unless you are unwise and share a secret with a LOUD MOUTH.

No, I am not a loud mouth.

YOU do not know either of these ladies and I'll never tell you their names or the countries that they reside in.

I guess I'm just feeling honoured that these two very different women, from two very different places, would share their secret with me.

And while their secrets bounce around my brain and I try to make sense of it all, I realize that now I am the carrier of secrets. It bonds us.

So, I'll lock these secrets away and pray for these ladies and I'll remember that a secret can be a heavy burden, unless you share it.

Carefully!