The Importance of Tears

I love this quote by Charles Dickens:

“Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.”  -Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Crying comes in many forms; we can sob due to deep grief, we can have silent tears when watching an especially touching scene or commercial, we can "well up" when getting caught off guard by an old wound, we can share tears with someone, we can laugh until tears are streaming down our faces. Regardless of the release, that is the point of tears - it helps us to release our pent up emotions or our immediate reaction to something. And as Dickens implies, tears soften us. They help us to access our vulnerable self, they cleanse us. There is an importance to tears. :) Photo by Trung Pham Quoc on Unsplash