Adulting: Another Side to Crying...

I love that adulting is often about exposing ourselves to new viewpoints, which can in turn bring healing.

When I was a little girl, I remember one afternoon my great aunt was crying her heart out. My grandma went into the bedroom, shut the door, and was so gentle and comforting to her. But it was a such a worrying situation for me. Why was my aunt so sad? I can still remember her howls echoing through the hall.

Being older now, I can see another perspective that I didn’t have as that little one on the other side of the closed door. More mature me can see the situation for what it was: a typical spat in a marriage. I eventually found out that my uncle had frustrated my aunt to the point of tears. He had not murdered anyone, nor had he abused her. While he might have still been at fault, my auntie chose to express herself loudly (as some people do). But they made up later, and life continued.

And even if back then someone had sat me down and laid the situation out before me, I’m not sure I would have understood. I had yet to comprehend marriage relationships. But I sure understood crying.

Yes, life can get scarier as we get older. All we need to do is read the news, and we can learn about terrible things that we hoped weren’t happening but are. There are many, many reasons to weep.

Yet, as a small reprieve we also learn that some of the scary isn’t as scary as we thought. In my case, my crying auntie was going to be just fine. Because while crying can be incredibly sad, crying can be therapeutic. Crying can bring relief. And crying be healing.