Tears

Tears. I hate seeing them on other people's faces. And it's not that I can't deal with the fact that they're crying, is that 95% of the time, it's because they are in pain of some sort, and I feel terrible for them. Five percent of the time, there are tears of joy...but hey, let's be honest, these are rare and hard to come by.

So after a day of my other 2 girlfriends dealing with deaths in this family, I wasn't expecting much today in terms of stories or hurt. But obviously I was wrong. I bumped into a friend and she's been having a tough time with life in general. And they are all legitimate reasons. So today, all I asked was "how are you?" And the tears started to come...and they kept coming. It was one of those "I'm trying to stop but the faucet has been opened and now I can't stop" type of cries.

Well, I was suprised to say the least. But I took her someplace quiet and private where we could chat and she could just cry. And though it was hard to watch her go through this, it was so important that she did. And I just let her do it, listened, and when she asked for advice, I didn't even bother to sugarcoat.

I let her cry because I know that she could then acknowledge the problem and just be "there" with it. But I can see that even with that big cry, she's already started to work her way out of that dark hole that I spoke about in my last entry. I'm not saying that I was the reason she's crawling out of that hole. It really was those tears that she cried that is helping her heal, and letting her eyes see clearly the pathway out.