I listened to this story earlier today:
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=377716623&m=379119584&live=1

It is a story on NPR which talks about Frank Warren who had an idea to ask people to share their secrets. The story is very worth the listen.

There are so many of us that have so many things that are hidden deep within. There are many secrets and stories I hear while working with people. I think part of the reason this story touched me was that I had been contemplating lately the enormous need for people to have an outlet for their deepest hurts, secrets, desires.

It seems that we are so afraid of being judged, or afraid of judging ourselves that the parts of us that are shared with these secrets are really hidden from the people that we are with every single day. They are sometimes even hidden from ourselves and it is not until such time as we are given the opportunity to release what we have kept hidden that it is released. It occurs to me how healing that this must be for people. To write down what is deep within them. To expose what they have not exposed and to send it off to someone they know will read it and not judge what is being read. Just in the releasing there is healing.

I wonder what would happen if we felt secure enough with the people around us to do something similar. I wonder what would happen if it was the norm to share a ‘secret’ with another and have that person just sit, listen and that is it. Not say anything, not feel the need to tell anyone else and at the end give the person that shared the secret a hug and say “Thank you for the sharing.” It seems that is the one thing that is missing in this whole story. A hug, a contact, a knowing that no matter what the secret is/was or how it is expressed that there is still love, that one is not less for having a ‘secret’ and one is not less for sharing the ‘secret’.

That fact that some of these secrets are being published is beautiful. In this sharing with the world we know we are not alone in the feelings of vulnerability in sharing of ourselves. I think that is the hardest thing for many of us to do …. share who we really are… all of who we really are. There is part of everyone that is a secret. There is part of everyone that just doesn’t make it to the forefront of life. There is a part of all of us that is vulnerable. There is a part of many of us that is in need of healing. Being human gives us the false impression that we are sometimes all alone in our lives. Gives us the false impression that there are some things or perhaps that one secret that makes us unacceptable to the whole. We forget how connected we all are. We forget that we are all part of the same energy system, we are all part of the same whole and we are all worthy of understanding, forgiveness, gratitude and love.

It occurs to me that there is one person that I do share ‘secrets’ with and the response is often “thank you for the sharing.” I think about that gift when people share with me and I am in the position to thank someone else for sharing.

I wonder what I would put down as a secret post card confession. I wonder how people decide what to send. Is there just one? Are there many? Which would be the most healing to release? Or since they know it will remain a secret to all but themselves and the Universe is it the one that nags most in the heart? There are some secrets that have been posted that are hilarious, others that are heart-wrenching, others heart-warming…behind the screen of anonymity all are filled with the truth of of our human condition.

Thank you, Frank Warren, for facilitating the release of secrets for so many. My prayer is that there is healing in the sharing and in the release.

There are a lot of the secrets that he has collected on the web site:
http://postsecret.com/

image from jconline.com
Powerful Secrets