“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”-Maya Angelou

The weight on the shoulders of one who decides to come out and share a secret is immense, they hold a huge responsibility-to themselves, and to the community- I’ve had to do this twice this year, neither time was easy for me-none of it. The difference was that the first secret I let out at the beginning of the year was something I held in for my entire life, this time I knew I could not hold in anymore secrets because it would eat me up inside if I allowed it to. Holding in a secret is one of the unhealthiest things a soul can endure.

The first thought that crossed me was-‘did this really happen?’ the mind plays games not wanting to believe what occurred in order to protect itself-self doubt at its best. The second thing I did was reaching out to someone I trusted to reveal my secret, someone to hold the space while I cried my heart out and allowed my fears to come through. After spending a few days in the darkness of it all some clarity came through and I decided to take the leap and share my experience with the community. I weighed my options heavily, I knew that there would be people who would support me and people who would become aloof-I knew this. What I did not foresee was that other women would come forward and thank me because they too had similar experiences. This too is something that occurred the first time I shared a secret- though I had forgotten about it.

Indeed, if you pay attention to the news you will see how one person after another will come out of hiding once one person steps forward to share the truth of their experience. The people who speak the truth then face the same thing I did, however on a grander scale-they have people who back them up and then people who threaten them with death. No, telling the truth and speaking up is not an easy task-not at all. There is just as much to lose as there is to gain, both parties get affected, but it is how they choose to proceed and react that makes the difference between learning from the experience and rising out of it, or sinking in the madness of it all and polluting the only thing that is true-our heart.