Word of the Day: tears Image of the Day: blue Buddha head at our front door Token of the Day: coaster with a tear-shaped/fish/eyes pattern in
green-blue
tears
of sorrow, joy
pain, liberation
cleansing, scalding
i cry easily, often
tears of long ago
uncried, unsoothed
making up for lost time - blocked tear ducts
over-sensitive? over-emotional?
hyper-aware, hyper-vigilant,
grieving, angry, sad, lost.
Crocodile tears
laughter of hyenas
doleful donkey
bear-hugs.
Gail brought me two boxes of tissues for my journey of tears. Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger bounce happily on the sides of the boxes. Last night i shed tears of laughter. Cathartic, energising. So many days i cry tears of pain, sorrow, confusion, old fears, and i am left exhausted, sometimes beweildered, sometimes wondering if it will ever end, if one day i will only have left the tears that belong to the present and have laid to rest these echoes, the sound and still-raw emotion of my younger self.
Jesus wept. The shortest sentence in the Bible, one used by many as a curse, a simple exclamation of surprise, blasphemous. If the Christ cried and it is recorded for us to read and contemplate why is it so difficult for us to cry, to be seen crying, or to observe someone else crying?
Is it similar to our discomfort around laughter? Are we simply ill-at-ease with emotion? Do we fear its power, what it might reveal, how it might influence? The fact that i cry is not a demand for the "observer" to give in to me, to forgive me, or whatever yet so often i find i need to explain this. we associate crying with being either a child or with being unhinged. The first is allowed in society, the second is tolerated but not particularly accepted...
When i cry in a meeting, an encounter, or a situation i am being authentic, feeling my feelings. Sometimes my tears are a form of expressing anger but very often they are simply tears of sorrow. And this makes people uncomfortable. The only place where i regularly encounter people shedding tears in a group context is at church. It would be a rare event for an entire service to go by with nobody crying. Usually it isn't me doing the crying but when i have done it has felt fine (so long as i have enough tissues to hand!). I have felt supported, held, accepted. Crying is biblical (697 references for verses associated with crying (weep, cry, tears)...) Perhaps it should be a spiritual practice!
How many accounts are there of statues, usually of Mary, crying?
The most famous in Europe was in 1953 when a small statue of Mother Mary kept weeping profusely. Scientists even took samples of the tears and announced that they could not differentiate it from human tears. The Catholic Church took it as a miracle and the statue is still housed in a shrine specially built for it, and receives worshippers and visitors every year...
A final quote:
An organization called Grief Recovery shares some intriguing advice to those who walk with those who grieve. What are your thoughts about what is written? “We must still ask, what purpose or value, if any, does crying have in recovery from loss. Let us say that crying can represent a physical demonstration of emotional energy attached to a reminder of someone or something that has some significance for you. We encourage someone who is crying to ‘talk while you cry.’ The emotions are contained in the words the griever speaks, not in the tears that they cry.”- www.grief-recovery.com
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