st peter (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and is summoning you to where, if your soul is to be saved, you should go next. Frederick Buechner
Pay attention to tears – especially when you are writing. The welling up of emotion can take me by surprise. It usually signals that I have tapped in to something important. I need to honor the emotions that I experience as I write. Both positive and negative. Each has its lesson.
There are days when I’m not feeling up to writing. I need to write on those days. There are days when tears come. I need to write on those days too. Depression? Write about it. Loss? Write it into the story. Grief? A reader may need to hear the sadness that comes through your words. The range of emotions that we experience gives a range of feeling to our work. We need the downs as well as the ups.
Writing can help me make sense of the sorrows in my life. The release of tears during writing can ease some of those sorrows. Be thankful today for what comes. And whatever comes, keep writing.
Writing Sisters
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
Rumi
