I was recently sitting with a friend by the pool. I felt compelled to share a story I had told no one in years.

"Did I ever tell you about the time...?"

I opened up a dark and formative part of my past with someone. It involved an incident that I had handled, for which I had sought and received forgiveness, for which I had made amends. Then I packed it up gently and put it on the top shelf of an unused closet in a back bedroom of my life. I thought there was no need for me to ever mention it again.