tears.

"There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief...and unspeakable love.”
-Washington Irving

In his book Lament for a Son,  Nicholas Wolterstoff who lost his son to a climbing accident says, "But why celebrate stoic tearlessness? Why insist on never outwarding the inward when that inward is bleeding? Does enduring not require as much strength as never crying? Must we always mask our suffering? May we sometimes not allow people to see it and enter it?"


Another book I'm reading is "Experiencing Grief" by H. Norman Wright. Here are a few exerts from it...


Tears.
Those tiny drops of humanity. 
Those round, wet balls of fluid that tumble from our eyes
creep down our cheeks
and splash on the floor of our hearts...


They are miniature messengers; 
on call 24 hours a day to substitute for crippled words.
They drip, drop, and pour 
from the corner of our souls
carrying with them the deepest emotions we possess.


They tumble down our faces with announcements 
that range from the most blissful joy to the darkest despair. 
The principle is simple; when words are most empty
tears are most apt.