Yes cry!
There were many wonderful speakers at the ‘rally for reuniting families’ yesterday in Flagstaff Arizona. One woman, who is a Hispanic immigrant, spoke passionately about her life experience. At a certain point, she began to cry. She was speaking of the current actions of children being ripped from their parents arms. She said ” Forgive me for being so emotional. Wow! Forgive her? Let us celebrate her! She was sharing from deep in her heart about her own personal struggles as an immigrant in our society. Then the mayor of Flagstaff spoke to the crowd. She was articulate, passionate, inspiring, knowledgeable and on fire! She encouraged all of us to get out and vote! This being of light is going places, maybe even President of the United States!
Life is about a whole range of emotions. Fear, anger, sadness, joy, love, surprise, envy, guilt and others. When we experience many of these, we often cry. Have you ever noticed that when people cry in public, they often make excuses for the tears. We often say,” I’m sorry”, for doing so. We wipe away the tears. Someone leaps to our rescue, with a facial tissue, to wipe up the tears. Why? Why are we embarrassed about shedding tears? Why don’t we honor them? Let’s celebrate them. Not necessarily the occasion for the tears, but that we are human beings with feelings. Sometimes we cry when we are sad and sometimes there are tears of joy. One is not better than the other. It is preferable for us to be joyful rather than sad, of course. However, the tears we create say something wonderful about us. They say, “We care.” We have compassion. We have feelings for ourselves and others. We care about people, animals. life, death and thousands of life experiences that touch us deeply.
I say yes to tears. May most be those of joy and celebration. And when they are tears of sadness and grief, they are just as valuable and are to be treasured. From my passionate heart to yours, Thomas