Waterworks

Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy.

—Psalm 126:5

My friend Eve told me once that the ability to cry is a sign of health, because it means your body and your soul agree on something, and that what your soul is feeling, your body is responding to. I tell my husband that every time my own personal waterworks turn on. Sign of health, honey.

In the same way that tears are a gift and a sign of health, I’m coming to learn that pain is, among other things, an opportunity to learn something about our bodies, a chance to listen to them and learn what they have to teach us. And pain is an opportunity to be comforted, something I always resist, greatly preferring immediate solutions or independence.

My friend Mindy pushed and worked and overworked and kept running past all the signs she should have paid attention to, until one morning she found she had vertigo so bad she couldn’t get out of bed. Our bodies know what they’re doing, and they know how to get our attention. It’s like a toddler asking the same question over and over and over until you think you might lose your mind.