Power of Secrets...

I wake up to CBC Radio One every morning. My routine usually consists of hitting the snooze button a few times before turning the radio off and getting up. As I said, I "wake up" to the radio; I don't actually listen to it.

This morning, however, a story caught my attention - and I listened. It was about secrets: their power over us and the healing that comes with sharing them. "We're only as sick as our secrets." How many times has that been heard in the rooms of recovery!

The interview was with Frank Warren, author of PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives. About 13 months ago, he decided to invite people to anonymously send him a postcard and share a secret. What started as an experiment has lead to this book and a blog.

What struck me the most in this interview was the way Warren honours and cherishes the secrets that have been entrusted to him. This is no cheap thrill-seeking endeavour; this is an exercise in creating community... in healing community. Sadly, I have to agree with him when he says the response to his invitation - over 10,000 postcards so far - demonstrates the degree of lonliness that exists in our world, despite our numbers and our access to communication tools.

I remember all too well the relief I felt when I first shared what I felt was a most shameful and freakish secret. My friend did not laugh at me or draw back in horror. She looked at me with love and accepted me fully. Y'know, I don't see that friend that much these days. If nothing else, perhaps she was put on my path for that very moment - a moment of a secret shared and a wound healed.

Indeed, we are only as sick as our secrets.