National Coming Out Day

Have you ever hidden something from people you know would judge you for it? You know today they see you as competent, reliable, steady, respectful, responsible…

But you know something they don’t know.
Only a select few know this hidden gem of information. The random puzzle piece that nobody seems to find because it’s hidden under a sofa or in a basement closet somewhere. You know that piece, right? The piece that doesn’t take away from the main focus of the picture, but a small missing detail just the same.

What if you knew you’d be treated differently if this puzzle piece was found? Hiding is safer, of course, just like not confronting the big guy pawing you at the bar because you’d like to get home alive tonight…

What if a central part of you has been pushed down so far and for so long you nearly did not recognize where the piece even fit anymore.

It has become so concentrated and dense that it cannot hold itself together anymore. The pressure is too great. Still, you keep pushing it deeper and deeper inside so you’re the only one who knows it’s there.

There will come a time when that one ass at the bar makes a joke. And someone at work tells a story. You hear a comment on tv and the solid piece of puzzled granite that was once settled in your gut has now shifted.

You could legally lose it all.
Job
Housing
Family

Just because this one piece of the puzzle was found in the hall closet, mixed with a hundred other lonely parts.

What would you do?
Would you risk everything in order to live an authentic life? Or would you hide it all deep down until it festers and works its own way out like an abcess?

Be kind.
You don’t know what people are carrying.