Weeping In Delight

One thing leads to another as we flow from one moment to the next, so this is a bit of streaming consciousness... Yesterday evening, I kept feeling this urge to cry, not out of being upset or depressed or angry or anything negative and yet I couldn't quite put my finger on where the sensation was coming from. Before bed, I was reading from The Path of Practice and the topic was honoring the ancestors, so on that note I fell asleep. This morning, still the lingering tears behind the eyes. Hmm. So, I continued with my morning, wrote out my morning pages (journaling) and nothing really came through. Okay, so then I have a few house chores to do and decided to put on some music! Let's see, what shall it be? John Denver! I have a good collection of his songs so put the player on 'random'. Then, WHAM! All the wonderful feelings of vacations with my parents (many where trips to Colorado, many times all of us singing along with John Denver) came flooding in, not so much the specific memories but rather the overall feelings of love and care, of adventure and experience, of gratitude and joy rushed upon me and, yes, then the tears began to flow. I was at peace. THIS is where I needed to be, sitting beautifully and happily within the bubble of those emotions. After a few minutes, I called Mom just to tell her "thank you" and I also sent a "thank you" to Dad's spirit; we cried quite happily together over the phone.

But I really wasn't feeling sad, rather delighted, and this quote expresses wonderfully how tears can be misinterpreted as sadness or sorrow with negative connocations.

When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see that, in truth, you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Kahlil Gibran