There is a heaviness in the world. A grief unspoken that catches in the throat, bringing forward tears.
Our hearts, the sense organs of emotion in the body, cracked open with sorrow at the scenes of war, devastation, starving children. Scenes that simply should not be, and yet, we as humanity have allowed to come to pass.
What has happened to our world when the lives of non-combatants, women and children, have become weaponised as part and parcel of war? What has happened in a world where humanitarian aid becomes a negotiable? What has happened when water becomes a precious commodity withheld from the most vulnerable?
What has happened to humanity’s heart?
What is the state of our soul?
The heart of the human collective has broken open with a terrible, wordless grief that feels like a silent scream turning the throat raw with pain. In that moment, a new language emerges…the language of tears. Tears that speak of the deeply burdened hearts mourning the loss of innocent lives, of the most vulnerable who should be protected.
“In many lives there are hidden banks of tears. Things have been suffered but then buried and successfully forgotten. And yet there is great relief to be found in tears, for tears release great burdens. In some strange way pain washes itself out of the body through our tears. Despite the pain felt in the weeping, the result can be a greater sense of peace and balance. It is the unseen, the kept tears that often cause the most destruction.”
John O’Donohue. The Four Elements: Reflections on Nature
So let your heart break in sorrow. Allow your tears to flow. Allow the tears to wash down your face, pouring out your rage, your sorrow and your pain. And as your tears pull the pain from your heart to flow across your cheeks, allow the water of emotion to cleanse your soul and release the feelings you have contained.
As the tears of your heart flow freely, guiding you back to your soul nature, connecting you with your inner knowing…
Allow yourself to connect with your element of water, your emotion, your heart.
Allow yourself to connect with your element of earth, your beliefs that cradle the water, the emotion.
Allow yourself to connect with your element of fire, the call of resolution and action from your soul, the fire that is held by the crucible of earth.
Allow yourself to connect with your element of air, your words, your communication, your mind. Held within your earthen, material body.
Allow yourself to connect with your element of ether, of spirit, to find access to your soul through the portal of your heart.
Allow heart and soul to unite and guide your internal compass. In that union of heart and soul, of water and ether, a different experience emerges, a connection to compassion.
Allow grace and compassion to guide your conscience, to harness the mind guided by air.
Allow the fierce fires of resolution and action to warm the voice that carries the message of heart and soul.
Allow the air to carry the words that emerge from the heart, spoken into being by trembling voices made resolute, that we can envisage a different way of being in this world.
And let ether carry the message of those newly confident voices, speaking of the places of the heart, of the “Gift of Tears”[1] filled with grace and compassion, to speak a new future into being, to spark humanity to take a different course of action that honours and protects innocents.
I invite you to take a moment to explore this contemplation on what the “Gift of Tears” means for you. You may wish to find a quiet space to do so:
- Place the index finger of your non-dominant hand on the tip of your nose to connect to the present moment. See if you are able to defocus your gaze
- Cultivate your breath with an even inhale and even exhale through your nostrils until breath flows effortlessly
- Allow your awareness to be guided to the place in your body where your tears are calling. This may well be your heart space in the centre of your chest
- If you feel the desire, you may move your non-dominant hand over to the place where the tears feel most concentrated
- Breathe into the concentration through your nostrils and exhale out from your mouth into the concentration. Continue until you feel connected with your tears
- Allow the tears to emerge and to speak to you of what has been held within
- Express gratitude to your heart and your tears, and the place where the tears were most concentrated
- Move both hands over your navel. Shift breathing back to even inhale and even exhale at the nostrils
- As you inhale, the belly presses against your palms
- Gently press your hands on your navel to begin and support each exhale
- As your breathing becomes established, sense a flame at your navel
- As you inhale, the flame grows
- As you exhale, the flame brightens
- Continue breathing the flame at your navel until you feel establish
- Sense your physical body, the edges of your skin, the muscle and bones, and release all effort
- Take a moment to rub your eyes and your face with your palms, and arrive back in the present moment
Allow yourself to notice what has emerges & take heed.
Let not your tears be unspoken, unseen, hidden and kept. Allow your tears to flow free, to guide you back to the truth of your heart.
Our choices of today guide our actions that form tomorrow’s future. When tomorrow’s children read about our today, let them see how we acted with grace and compassion, guided by heartbreak.
References
1 John O’Donohue. The Four Elements: Reflections on Nature.
Main – Photo by Pixabay
About the Author: Winnie Man
