The Crying Place Revisited

In spring of 2024, my sweet student gave me a great idea that I’m still processing and working on. Yesterday I had a new revelation. It had been a long time since my hiking partner and I have been able to do 5 miles, but it happened yesterday. The hike was great, but the talk in the car after Starbucks?!! This was me:  Yes, the weekend was fulfilling. Yes, my heart was happy, and life has been good. But one conversation led to another conversation and the next thing I knew I was crying about two extremely heavy conversations I’ve had over the past few months. My hiking partner asked me if I had cried like that with anyone else. The answer: No. The last time I cried like that was with my dad and my best friend, two separate phone conversations in 2019. Last night as I cried, I could feel that same weight on my chest. It was awful, but I felt lighter and better after the cry. When I got home, I thought, maybe it’s not a place but a person. Some people just exude safety.

The Crying Place

For the past two weeks, I have been talking to my honors class about entrepreneurship. They have presented their ideas and gotten feedback from their peers, but on Thursday one had an idea that I loved. Now, although I loved her idea for me, I promise you that I won't be sad if someone steals it. She raised her hand and said, I have an idea for you: the Crying Place. Excuse me? Can you please repeat that? The Crying Place. Then she explained. She said that some people have a hard time expressing their emotions, and people needed to come to a safe space that I provided and cry, and then they will feel better. If you only knew how sweet this young lady is! I told her I loved it. I then hugged her and whispered that it was something I was praying about. The irony and blessing is that I had driven to work that morning with tears in my eyes and fighting hard not to give into them. Not my grief, but deep sadness over situations my friends are facing. It's a lot. I wondered if just crying it out would help, and then I was presented with this idea. Hmmm...let's see what my future holds.