For the love of Lachrymation #SoCS 8/11

The use of a large word and do I actually know what it means? Yes. A rarity for me I am sure and praying that I spell it correctly. Today’s challenge from Linda G. Hill of Stream of Conscious Saturday brings to mind the very obvious first thought when someone says bodily function. It is that of gas erupting from our body from one end or the other creating much alarm, disgust and lots of giggles. But that is not my choice for today, instead I chose something very intimate for my country on the approach of the anniversary date of 9/11. It is day much like Pearl Harbor Day when an attack on our country brought us into WWII. Its the anniversary day of the attack on USA from radical terrorism destroying many lives for the useless greed of power and control. And we start remembering the horrors in August to honor those who died in September. So with that in mind I chose lachrymation, the act of shedding tears.

There are three types of shedding tears – 1) Basal tears : used daily to keep our eyes moist. 2) Reflex tears : use to help wash out foreign objects that get into our eyes and irritate them. 3) Psychic tears : Tears produced as a response to a mental or emotional stimulus.

As you can probably tell, I am going to focus on Psychic tears. Yesterday I read an excellent article from a post by nathanpatrickroach.blog  titled Jesus Wept. It was a wonderful read and I suggest  you may want to read it as well. In a nutshell it shows how God gave us the ability to weep as a sign of mourning, to show compassion of a loved one lost. It is my belief that tears created from an emotional place shows the very love of God. As in the above mentioned story of loss and mourning or the sight of something so extremely beautiful or terrifying it brings us to tears. Or then there is the magnificent sound of hearing music so profound it makes the hair stand up on our arm as tears slide from our eyes. All of our senses can easily be tied to our emotional responses of life.

One form of tear shedding I have not hit on it and of course that is where I am going – the tears of laughter. We all need more laughter in  this scary world. When I was young, my brother and I were notorious for ruining the mid-day meal on Saturday. There were four of us children and he and I were the youngest. And there was more than one form of disruption we caused but it was usually because he could get me tickled at the drop of the hat. After a while it was almost expected and extra towels were brought to the table in case beverages were knocked over, creating more ruckus and laughter. My brother had the uncanny ability to get me laughing so hard that no sound was heard, or breathing for that matter, and tears would soak my cheeks. My mother, in her blessed southern proper way, would try to keep it in control so that my father would not get upset.  But if you caught him just right you would see the sparkle in his eyes as well.

So tears come in many fashions but most tears come from emotional responses that come from our hearts. And it is my firm belief that Jesus cries with us when we cry and laughs with us when we laugh.  Sometime He laughs at us in spite of ourselves. He gave us these emotions, so lets enjoy them, share them with others and use them to hold each other up together.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “bodily function.” Decide on one or write about a whole bunch of bodily functions. Bonus inspiration: here’s a website. Enjoy!