“Mum, Why Do You Cry So Much?”

“Mum, why do you cry so much?”
“Mum, are you crying again?”
“Mum, is that tears on your cheeks?”
“Really Mum? Tears again?”
“You’ve been crying haven’t you Mum?”

Yep, these are comments I often hear from my kids. Actually, I would say at least a couple of times a week I will hear those words coming from their mouths, grins on their faces, like, here we go again.  It’s a normal thing to see Mum cry.

Now, these tears are mostly all happy tears! You know the ones. The ones you get when you watch Extreme Make Over – Home Edition or watch that YouTube clip of returning Soldiers seeing their kids for the first time. That Ellen clip of her giving a deserving family $10,000 or a stranger showing kindness to someone less deserving! Gosh, even Christmas movies and songs can bring me to tears! Yessiree, all these things will easily bring a tear (or two) to my eyes!

But sometimes they are actually tears of sadness though: watching a clip of a Father burying his 5-year-old son, a cancer patient speaking to a daughter, he will never meet, or that heart-wrenching video of a father walking his 12-year-old daughter down the aisle as he won’t be around to do it when she actually does get married!

Yes, I am a crier! And actually I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing. I don’t see crying as a weakness. I see it as me being comfortable with who God has made me be, and that my friends is an emotional being! What you see is what you get, whether I am happy or sad, you will see it! And I guess because my kids spend so much time with me, they see it a lot!

I am hopeful that I am teaching my kids that it’s ok to cry. People will often say that strong people don’t cry. Well to that I say “Piffle”

I am a strong person. I am not a hard person, but I am a strong person. I have overcome things in my life that have been tough. I have always refused to be a victim and to rise above my difficulties. These things have made me stronger, but they haven’t hardened me. Crying is not a weakness or something to be ashamed of, in fact, God has made us with emotions and I think it’s healthy to let them show.

At this point I do just need to clarify: we are talking about a few silent tears streaming down your cheeks, not the opening of the floodgates, the big ugly sobbing crying, or the crying so hard you can’t breathe. That’s ok too, but I just don’t think anyone but Jesus needs to see that!

So this week will no doubt be another emotional week for me. There will be highs and lows, good and bad experiences, and moments of sadness that will bring me to tears. But there will also be laughter, silliness, happy tears, and moments where my heart is so full it feels like it will burst. It will be real and honest, and it will be me. This is my life and I love it!

So if you see me with tears in my eyes, don’t panic! I am ok, I will be ok, and despite what my kids think, I am normal!