WEALTH OF EMOTION

　
I watched a show talking about the lack of tear-jerker movies, you know, the ones that always make you cry no matter how many times you’ve seen them. That got me thinking, and realizing the degree to which we seem to have learned to hide our emotions. I wonder if that’s a good thing. It is wise to guard your ‘self‘, especially in this era of “friending” strangers and social networking, but protecting yourself from the highs and lows of personal emotion may not be so wise.

I’m a baby boomer. Brought up watching Lady & the Tramp, Old Yeller, Bambi … lovely, heartwarming movies that also delivered some tough blows. Real life; the school of hard knocks. We learned to suck it up and go on watching the movie, get on with the life. In retrospect, I think those lessons served me well.

As a woman dealing with a glass ceiling and a lot of prejudice, it was absolutely necessary to remain devoid of emotion back in the 1970’s. Everything was very business-like, very professional…just facts and figures, good and bad. The better I became at that, the more I saw only black and white…. No blue skies, no red roses … just on to the next “level”, the next rung on the ladder, the next goal achieved, the next paycheck. I missed out on so much that I can never re-gain. Events, attached to emotions, are stored in the brain as more easily-recalled memories. So, guarding my emotions while going about my life was not in my own best interest! Memories lost, buried in the recesses of the mind. I can’t go back, but I can change that for my future.

I allow myself to cry ~ over the birth of children (and bear cubs♥); at the sight of an injured deer, struggling to survive winter. I feel deeply and pray for stranger-friends who are going through heartbreak I cannot even fathom, and I cry. I rejoice for a friend and her dream home, christened with tears of laughter and joy. I recognize my aging parents won’t be here forever, and my heart aches.

But I also laugh. With my parents, recalling happy memories of the past and sharing precious moments in the present; at myself, shoveling snow barefoot, in my robe; at the corny jokes I read in my e-mails and on social networks; at the funny pictures posted by family and friends; at the cats, stalking a flock of turkeys; at the mess I made when a pot of chicken stock blew up all over the kitchen last week. I think laughter truly is the best medicine.

As I grow older and wiser, I realize that only by allowing myself to be emotional ~ by engaging my heart as well as my brain ~ the memories of my life become richer. That is genuine wealth.

Black Elk
Oglala Sioux Holy Man 1863-1950

You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round..... The Sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours....Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.