Crying

What is crying? Why do we cry? Does crying always associate with sadness and pain? How can we tell if the person is crying out of happiness or pain inside?

I took a bus back home today. Saw a toddler talking to her family while standing and the bus took a jerk forward and she fell down. She cried as a result and rather loud too, I might add. As I was watching the 'awkward' situation from a corner as her father helped her up, it made me ponder as I see her cry.

We cry because we are in pain. We cry because we are hurting inside our heart. We cry simply because its one of the most effective ways to vent out deep unhappiness in us.

Is it sand that threw itself into our eyes that caused tears to form and well up in our eyes? Or we cry so as to purge any possible toxin that coagulate in our eyes and subsequently wash our eyes? Or maybe we cry because we are just plain emotional?

When we see a couple on the aisle exchanging vows of marriage or a newborn baby, even graduation of the young adult, we can somehow see a few individuals, mostly the mother or close relative, shed tears. Normally we dismiss it off as tears of happiness and joy.

Can you imagine seeing a new life, or years of grooming come to fruition or even seeing your child tying the knot makes you so happy and felt joy that mere words could not even describe that, tears are the best way to express that feeling.

Is that really the case? Seeing a newborn coming into the world of treachery, betrayal, mistrust and others. Or seeing that the young graduate is now about to face the REAL world, not under the shelter of the parents anymore. Seeing the married couple is now going to face new challenges and issues they could never imagine possible or happening to them. Does the crying kin subsconsciously know what it will be like or is there more? Perhaps a mixture of happiness and sadness?

We fall down and blood trickles from the knee, we cry. We got caned by our mothers and made to kneel, we cry. We get ridiculed by friends or peers, we cry. We felt injustice as the teachers blamed us for something we did not do, we cry. We broke up with our dates, we cry. Our kins or friends passed away, we cry. A heated arguement with our family, we cry alone. Years of pain and fustration bottled up into us, we find a place and cry.

So many things to make us cry. Its an innate ability since coming out from our mothers' womb. Its so natural and easy to do. Babies cry when they are hungry, uncomfortable or wanted attention. Kids cry when they are bullied, hurt or unable to get what they wanted. Teenagers cry when they break up, get maligned or couldn't make the grade. Adults cry when they felt helpless, lost or fustrated.

However, I left out the question on 'What is crying'.

Is crying a way to ease tension and pain? Perhaps its really to wash the toxin away? Or maybe there really is no reason to answer what exactly is crying.

I only know this: Crying is a gift.

When you are misunderstood, bullied, tortured or anything that hurts you, anger is there. Loss of rational thinking is inevitable. Maybe you will plot some sort of revenge or just try to direct the negative emotions to your own benefit. When all these are gone and done with, all that is left are the pain and sorrow that are not dealt with. What was earlier done could not justify or even soothe the pain that is in you.

What can you do?

You cry.