Please cry sometimes!
The clock struck midnight. There was torrential rain and thunder outside. But what would have been the ideal scene for a horror setting didn’t look like one? It made me wonder why. A thin sliver of light from the street lamp flooded into my room through a small opening in the window. Usually known as someone who avoids horror movies and horror settings, I found an odd solace in the unrelenting rain.
You see, overthinking takes a considerable toll. It is perhaps not too difficult to explain why. As your experiences grow and your failures increase, you try everything in your might to avoid the same mistakes. You try to predict events even before they happen and try to create contingency plans for the same. “Once bitten, twice shy” really holds value here. It’s alright if the scenario is new and fresh. But soon you start involuntarily plugging them back into your existing frameworks, thereby perhaps not giving it a chance to be something new. Something different. Becoming risk-averse and stopping ourselves from the possibility of having something new. Failure is said to be essential to gain experience, but the emotional toll is sometimes too high. We are frequently asked to believe in miracles, in the impossible, in the unimaginable. Someone with the mindset of an economist might wonder about the tradeoff? The long, arduous wait, occasional bursts of impatience and retrogressing on your progress (like the proverbial monkey trying to climb up a slippery pole) definitely takes a mental toll. With no one to understand the occasional frustration, it definitely builds up, eventually breaks you.
Perhaps, that is why the pounding rain gives solace. Even the sky cracks and needs to vent out. The mind can declutter by venting out and then, starting over once again. And that brings me to the vital act of crying. Viewed as a sign of weakness, this act has been regarded as socially acceptable to majorly the fairer sex. I honestly do not want to get into what an ideal society should be like — there are much better articles out there speaking of a grander cause. However, I do have a humble request to make — be sure to lend a shoulder to the person crying out to you.
You don’t have to solve their problem. Just be there to listen. It might not be a two-way street. The troubled might always not be there to hear you bawling. But it helps to know you are not alone. In the harsh, frosty world out there, it helps to know you can be a warm blanket coupled with a warm cup of beverage. It helps to know that you can be a pillar of strength despite your Everest of problems behind you. Don’t stress too much about being a pillar all the time, either. It is your personal right to disconnect yourself from the world and immerse yourself in your thoughts or even choose to stay blank. Give due recognition to your emotions. Do not always suppress your anger, do not consistently stifle your laughter, do not always nail yourself for crying. It takes immense courage to cry, and even greater courage to cry in the open. Just as the mighty Sky cracks open to unburden its heaviness, you, too, deserve to pour your heart out. And just like the Earth is there to receive the raindrops, someone will be there to wet their shoulders. You just need to remember to cry!
