February 25, 2016 Thursday)
Yesterday’s blog was about laughter. Today it is about tears.
Laughter almost always has a good meaning.
Tears can be tears of joy or tears of pain.
Tears of pain come when we are hurt by something–physically, mentally or spiritually.
Tears of pain come when we lose something or somebody.
Tears of pain come when we share another person’s misfortune, helping him or her to know we care.
Tears of joy come when we are surprised by something sudden and unexpected that makes us glad.
Tears of joy come when others receive overwhelmingly good news.
Tears of joy mingled with pain come when we empathize with complex emotional situations.
Tears of joy come when they are tears of repentance. *
Some folks never shed tears, although they have strong feelings.
Some folks shed tears “at the drop of a hat.”
Some people have a hard time with emotions of any kind and they don’t like to reveal their feelings.
Others openly share their feelings and their “life is an open book.”
Glad or sad, we feel things. Most of the time it’s better to express our feelings openly rather than hiding them within. Deep feelings have a way of surfacing in other ways, sometimes with unintended results.
Here are selected lines of a Howard Simon poem ~the Power Of A Tear~ :
Hand picked from the clouds of my heart
Providing me with an excellent new start
A tear
Carrying the DNA of pain
Washing away hurtful stains
A tear
Expressing unspeakable feelings
Creating new channels of healing
A tear
Traveling through tunnels of tragedy
Transporting tremendous tons of therapy
A tear
Rushing into a river of reformation
Creating a deluge of consolation
A tear
Tearing down walls of internal imprisonment
Building beautiful bridges of betterment
A tear
Providing homeostasis
Averting my crisis
A tear
Seasoned with the salt of reality
Rescued me from the claws of insanity
A tear
Flowing directly from the tear in my soul
Anchoring my feet and making me whole
A tear
Much thanks to you my dear tear
You are the reason I’m still here
(Just sayin’ – Laughter and tears–opposites? Then why are we able to say, “I laughed ’til I cried?”)
Go figure.
*”I am no longer sorry that I sent that letter to you, though I was very sorry for a time, realizing how painful it would be to you. But it hurt you only for a little while. Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you but because the pain turned you to God. It was a good kind of sorrow you felt, the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so that I need not come to you with harshness. For God sometimes uses sorrow in our lives to help us turn away from sin and seek eternal life. We should never regret his sending it” (2 Corinthians 7:8-10a TLB).