Secrets, secrets are no fun.

Secrets, secrets hurt someone.

Believe it or not, I never grew out of some of my annoying little sister habits. Case in point: whenever I see someone whispering something to someone else, I make my voice as nasal as possible and chant this little secrets rhyme in their direction. But tonight, I was actually being mature and thinking about this little diddie. Secrets hurt someone. At first, this seems obvious. Of course secrets hurt someone--they hurt the person that doesn't get to know the secret, right? Being a person that likes to be in the know, I always assumed that secrets were bad because a nosy person like me didn't get to hear all the dirt.

I once heard a story about a lady who went in for counseling because she had a horrible secret that she'd never told anyone. This poor woman could hardly eat or sleep because she was so consumed by her secret. In an attempt to therapeutically alleviate some of this woman's anxiety, the counselor asked the woman if she would like to tell him her deep, dark secret. She sobbed and shook and finally declared "It's just too shameful!" Eventually, she agreed to write down the horrid information that was holding her prisoner inside her own body. The counselor, of course, expected to read of some childhood trauama or perhaps a sin committed many years ago. He was not prepared for the words that were written on that paper.

In beautiful penmanship, the woman had written "I pick my nose and eat it."

See, what this storytells me is that secrets DO hurt someone, but it's not who I originally thought. Secrets hurt the person the secret belongs to. She is so afraid that something about her will be exposed to the world and that the embarrassment will be unbearable. So, it's not the secret-hearer who is hurt by the secret; instead, the secret-guarder is the one torn up inside.

I told a secret tonight to a friend that I trust. And can I tell you? It's been killing me for weeks that I had not shared this information with her. And yet, once it had been said, I felt like I had just handed my friend a note that says "I pick my nose and eat it." In the grand scheme of things, my secret was silly and unimportant and only doing ME more damage by not sharing it.

If you're being eaten away inside because you are hiding something from someone: believe me, it's true:

Secrets, secrets are no fun!

Secrets, secrets hurt someone.