Life with a Mental Illness…#mentalillnessfeelslike
Is Crying a Weakness? 49 reasons crying is a good thing…quoting…
“Whatever the reason may be, no one should give anybody a hard time if and when he or she chooses to break down.”
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It took many decades for me to be okay with crying anytime or anywhere. In my home as a child, crying was a weakness, and demonstrated being less than a grown man, young man or little kid for that matter. Siblings teased, friends made fun, bullies (the real closet cry babies) made a bigger mess out of things in school. Even my emotionally numb parents, while growing up, made a big stink about my crying. I cried more than my siblings and others. I’m emotional and passionate about lots of things. I do a whole lot better in these later years with crying as well. Crying does come a little easier as we age, and that’s a good thing…
I attended a beautiful memorial service yesterday for a dear friend, a young lady age 22, who drowned in the ocean. She may have been caught by a sneaker wave (click here for video clip), which can take anybody by surprise at low tide on a calm day at the beach while walking too close to the edge of the water line. As a small rural town on the Oregon coast, this was a terrible tragedy for our community. We gathered in large numbers at a local community center to show our love for Katy and her family. We all cried together and couldn’t stop for at least 2 hours. We celebrated this dear young lady’s treasured life. It was also a rare chance to come together as a community and show we still know how to talk to each other in person rather than through Facebook, Twitter, and texting.
At the end of the community memorial gathering and celebration of Katy’s life, the pastor shared with us that crying was good, and we should never hesitate unless it was absolutely life threatening. I never thought of it that way, but now see crying as a very healthy behavior anytime you feel like it. Shed a few tears when it comes to you. I have learned most people see you as more authentic when there is a tear or two of emotion as part of your passionate and emotional being. We are very fragile as humans, some more than others. If we don’t allow ourselves to show our emotional and human side and keep all the baggage bottled up, the emotions can come out all at once without warning.
At this point in my life, I see most folks who meet the challenges of life each and every day as strong not weak. The concept of weak is a relative term that might have context in competitive sports, but not in real every day life. When a person cries or tears up in my company, I see a real human being who cares about others deeply and expresses passion and emotion in most healthy ways. If you don’t cry when you must, excessive anger can rear its ugly head as a bottled up disappointment that crying moments could have healed much earlier. But remember, balanced anger and crying are both healthy signs of the human condition.
Steve Sparks, Author, Reconciliation, A Son’s Story and My Journey of Healing in Life After Trauma, Part 1&2… Click the highlighted text for my author page to order books and other stuff…
