Some tears are cried for sorrow, for grief; others are cried for happiness, for beauty. Some of us cry more readily than others do. We criers typically go through phases of expressing our emotions in this most obvious of ways.
Losing hope and giving in to sadness can be viewed as a break, a rest from all that positivity that we so eagerly embrace. Feeling hopeful in a world filled with sadness can be tiring; we may need a break from this effort just as much as we need hopefulness to keep on. Hope feels good, except for when it feels hard, so we take a rest from it to cleanse our spirits with tears.
We might cry to help us through tough days, and we might cry to help us let go of what we need to let go of. Other times, we cry when we feel overcome with joy. The scene I photographed on a drizzly day in late October and have posted above brought tears to my eyes because of its beauty.
Most of us were told as children to stop our crying, to grow up, to be a big boy or girl. So, many of us have needed to learn to cry again as adults. We must give ourselves permission to express our sadness (or our joy) with tears. We need to overcome pesky internalized messages that to cry is to be weak. But what if we thought of the expression of our feelings through tears as a strength? As a mature ability to display our emotions in an honest way? What do we have to lose? Anything, really? What might we gain?