MEDITATION #8 Easing Into the River of our Tears

MEDITATION #8 Easing Into the River of our Tears

I woke up to find a tiny bird who had drowned in our pool today. It was a powerful metaphor for this invitation that I kept postponing to ease into the river of our tears.  We are led to ponder about the tears we shed as babies and the ones we hesitate to allow to flow as adults. I thought it was particularly ironic that the tiny bird I found had died, suffocated by the very element he so thirstily had longed for.

I have also felt drowned in liquid sorrow this past week. There was a death in our community, and though I did not know the young man whose death left so much confusion and pain behind, my written words were called to be part of the healing process and I was humbled to realize I was just being an instrument, helping to clarify the message of hope and love this young man’s life had planted in so many lives. Simultaneously, I was aware of my own daughter’s pain, who happens to be the same age as the young man being mourned, dealing with the challenge of starting a new life on her own. My mother has also been shedding tears of pain and desperation and I have navigated her feelings of helplessness with her. One of my best friends has just embarked upon a new challenge of higher learning and she is expected to write and read proficiently in English, and she feels unfit and incompetent in that respect, and has been brought to tears by her frustration. I was even gifted the opportunity to be my husband’s nurse as he recovered from minor surgery, and though I did not see him shed any tears, I did see him surrender to humility and resignation and allow me to serve him while his body healed.

As babies, we were powerful within our tears. They allowed us to communicate hunger, discomfort, exasperation or plain exhaustion and they were our right, our means to an end, and we used them without hesitation. When did our tears become a source of shame, guilt or embarrassment? Whether we were neglected or tended to, our tears were a powerful means of expression and a blessing, and we can reclaim that meaning for them.

I willingly dove into the river of tears that surrounded me this week. I shed my own. I comforted, shared, listened and let my heart inhabit the healing flow. I dissolved my own fears and pain as I joined others’ sadness and by letting go, I re-discovered the bond of One-ness that bonds us within our shared humanity.

Tears are blessing rain which allow us to evolve and fertilize the blooms of tomorrow. Rites of passage in life often require us to feel the pain today in order to rejoice in the evolution that the next chapter will reveal as the progression unfolds. Jump into the river of your tears without reservation, fear or hesitation. The river of our tears will lead us, eventually, to the ocean of empathy and serenity.

With love,

Lina.