Secrets

“Please don’t tell anyone,” she said.
“Of course I won’t,” I assured her.

And I didn’t.  And haven’t.  And won’t.

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Sometimes I feel like my brain is a repository.  A repository of confidences entrusted to me by so many people in my life. 

I never saw this coming.  It was not something I experienced before being an adult.  It was not even something I experienced in the first part of adulthood.  But at some point people started confiding in me.

When it began to happen I wondered if I might feel burdened by it.  Instead I feel honored.  Honored that they would share part of themselves with me.  Honored that they would trust me to be careful with their secrets.  Honored that they would trust me not to judge.

I always want to just hug her, whoever she is, and say, “don’t worry…your secret is safe with me.”