To Hold a Secret

Not long ago, someone gave me a secret for safekeeping. 

When this secret was entrusted to me, a gentle breeze could have knocked me over. My heart filled to overflowing with love and celebration and relief, and at the same time great sadness and worry and wishes that the secret saw the light of day so much sooner. Secrets have a way of doing that - of producing at tumult of conflicting emotions making one both want to shout the secret from the rooftops and protect the secret at all costs, until it's ready to be told. 

It's not easy being a keeper of secrets. 

My entire life has been spent holding secrets - my own and those of others. In middle school, knew a friend's parents were getting divorced before he did. I was told of dark thoughts, of questioning sexuality, of in-love turned to love-for, of illness not to be revealed. I've held tight to people's deepest grief, greatest fears, and abounding joy until they were prepared to share it with others. Somehow people feel safe leaving their secrets with me. 

This most recent secret will be transforming when it is released into the world. I wait in eager anticipation until the time is right for the secret to be no longer.