I Wish For You Tears
I wrote this short post in January of this year (2014). I never posted it because I have been in a bit of a blogging funk the past several months, which might very well become the subject for more writing later. I went back to read some things I had written and they seemed to be what I needed to “hear” right now. So, even though the references are to the Christmas season I think many of us saying goodbye to a school year…or making any kind of life transition…will still GET this. I needed to be reminded of the importance of tears…maybe you do, too.
It’s the start of a New Year. We said good-bye to an old one.
It is a time of saying good-bye. A time of saying hello.
It is a mixed up, mashed up season of holiday cheer, somber reflection, and hopeful expectation. A roller coaster of a season with whiplash emotional turns, twists, ups, downs, and loopdy-loops. We are supposed to be happy. We aren’t very patient with the fact that we are a little sad.
We know that we are supposed to grab this season by the horns and MAKE. IT. COUNT.
Then it’s done. Over. Boxed away.
And as you pack away your memories, as you sweep up the needles of this year’s most intense season I have a wish for you.
No.
A blessing.
I pray you are blessed with tears.
I pray you fold up stockings and tree skirts, eat your last Christmas cookie…and cry.
I hope you find the courage to take time to look at pictures from another year gone by, celebrate, and…grieve.
We grieve when there is something worth grieving.
We grieve when something passes…time, good memories, success…and disappointments.
Usually all jumbled together.
We grieve change…good and bad.
We grieve things missed…things lost…and found.
We grieve what we value.
So, I pray for you tears.
I pray that you look back on pictures and take time to celebrate…and cry…over the year that has passed.
We have to learn how to turn the handle, to pull the knob, to let the faucet of emotions flow…for just a bit…or we forget how to be human.
How to be ALIVE.
In the midst of our harried world, if we don’t invest time in letting a little feeling out here and there, we get stopped up…maybe stop flowing altogether.
In a world that has little tolerance for waiting, for anything unpleasant, for any pain at all, we sometimes forget to invest this time, we conveniently ignore the opportunity…the very natural moment the new year brings.
To grieve.
To cry.
To experience the blessing of tears.
To be ALIVE and face the next year of living…and the full range of emotions that entails.
The blessing of tears – I have that right now, in spades. Sometimes I don’t think they will ever end. Thank you for writing this then and posting it now. Really ministered to me this evening.
Dusty,
Thank you so much for reading and commenting. I am glad it meant something to you. The blessing of tears can be a difficult one to endure. Praying your season of tears brings fruit and beauty.