I am a crier. I cry for sadness, for happiness, when my heart is touched, when I laugh hard, when I grieve and…often…at Purina Cat Chow commercials :).
Tears are so beautiful. They taste good. They feel good.
I love the release that tears give. When one is so sad that one’s throat feels like it’s collapsing in on itself, the flow of tears opens it right back up again.
There’s an aria from Massenet’s opera Werther, that I often sang, titled “Va, laisse couler mes larmes”. Charlotte sings this to her younger sister as she is weeping for love and loss.
Va! Laisse couler mes larmes! Go! Let flow my tears!
elles font du bien, ma chérie ! they do (me) good, my darling!
Les larmes quon ne pleure pas The tears which one does not cry
Dans notre âme retombent toutes, Inside our soul fall again, all of them,
et de leurs patientes goutes And with their patient drops
Martèlent le coeur triste et las. Hammer the heart sad and weary.
Sa résistance enfin sépuise; Its resistance finally exhausts itself;
le coeur se creuse et saffaiblit; The heart collapses and weakens;
il est trop grand, rien ne lemplit; It is too big; nothing fills it
et trop fragile, tout le brise! And too fragile, everything breaks it!
(translation by Lea Frey)
Let us consider tears….they are certainly nothing to be ashamed of. Yes, the heart can weaken and break with the ceaseless hammering of unshed tears. When strong people shed tears whether for joy or sorrow, it is tremendously inspiring because of their courage to release these fine drops of salted emotion. When we are laughing so hard with friends that we are crying, how wonderful it is to look at each others’ tears and feel the commonality of them. When we’re watching the movie, It’s A Wonderful Life, for the 500th time and all cry in synchronicity at the line “Attaboy, Clarence”, how poignant and unifying are these tears.
I had an unusual tear experience when I was with the horse, Serenity, at the barn the other day. We were all alone and I was grooming her in the slow pampering way we both so enjoy. There are many tender moments of horse sighing, horse lip licking, my kissing her soft, large nostrils and long amounts of time stroking her forelock in a way that she particularly loves. This day, on a luscious sunny afternoon, with breezes tugging at the leaves and birds having a festival of song, as Serenity and I did our routine, I found myself with tears streaming down my face. There was no reason, there was no warning. It was simply crying for the sake of crying. I stood next to her for quite awhile and just allowed all those tears to flow while she waited patiently in horsie fashion.
Consider tears…let us not underestimate their importance. Let us consider them yet another tremendous gift from heaven that affirms and releases the best in all of us.
Christine Hendler's Blog 