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Secrets are wily little creatures. Not unlike leprechauns, they do anything to escape. Keeping them, it seems is practically impossible. Their favourite way to get away is to disguise themselves as a leak by adding an E onto their ends and becoming secrete,' then flowing out when least expected. It is the nature of the beast to want to be anything but what it is a secret. Would you like to be kept hidden and concealed away, never having contact with the outside world? Neither do secrets.

It pays to know the difference between a secret and a confidence. Sometimes, something told in confidence is also a secret, but not always. Often a confidence is something that will become known in time, but needs to be kept under wraps for the time being. It's easier to keep a confidence of this type when you have the unveiling to look forward to. A confidence is something that you want keep private. A shared moment between lovers, for example, is not a secret, but you don't go spreading it around. It's special inside information just for the couple. No one else needs to know. Confidences rarely come with the condition to keep them private. They are given in trust and there is no need to apply a proviso to keep silent.

Secrets, however, are often tainted with guilt or shame, which is why people don't want anyone to know about it. It does beg the question why'd they tell you, then? If they don't want anyone to know, why tell anyone in the first place? Mostly, they need to get it off their own chests. It was probably eating them alive having to contain all that negative energy. Eventually, just for the sake of sanity, they spill the beans. Then they realize what they've done and add a clause, "Don't tell anyone else!" It's not a request.

And there you are with this deep, dark secret now worming its way through your own system, looking for an opportunity to become secrete' and leak out. You might reason that if you were told the secret, it's entirely possible that someone else was told the secret and so you feel justified in passing it on. You can always deny that it was you who sprung the leak. Secrets are burdens. They weigh on you if you let them. Emotional hot potatoes, they burn if you try to hold onto them.

The passing on of secrets is not usually malicious in intent. While some people get off on spreading secrets about others, most actually just need to unburden themselves of the negativity that comes with them. The guilt or shame the original secret holder has is part of

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