EYES AND TEARS

THE WORLD WITH AND WITHOUT GRIEF

"How wisely Nature did decree,
With the same eyes to weep and see"
~ Andrew Marvell

To me it’s astonishing how the newscasters do not burst out weeping while telling the stories they do.
Perhaps in people’s preference for anger, fear, or for excess analysis, one thing that’s being avoided is simply the vulnerability that is a unique virtue of grief.

The first time I learned that was through Andrew Marvell’s beautiful poem, "Eyes and Tears." He points out that it is weeping that cleanses the eyes, that allows us to see clearly.

"to preserve their sight more true,
Bathe still their eyes in their own dew."

As we move within this different looking world, we will be well served by weeping sometimes, more than by anger. And more by a tear than by fear.

And in bodywork the more we truly “see” the other person, the more our hands are guided by the intelligence of both the hearts and the mind.

Let our eyes cleanse our vision. So the person on the table is truly seen, and he or she feels our desire to understand. And at its best our seeing eyes, our understanding minds, result in actions through our whole self – body, mind and spirit and hands – that help the people on our tables let go of some of the causes and effects for their own tears. Their emotion can deepen their lives, clarify their sight, their path and enable them to take the next and best steps in their lives with clearer eyes.

"…For others too can see, or sleep,
But only human Eyes can weep.

Now, like two clouds dissolving, drop,
And at each tear in distance stop ;
Now, like two fountains, trickle down ;
Now, like two floods, o'erturn and drown
:
Thus let your streams o'erflow your springs,
Till eyes and tears be the same things ;
And each the other's difference bears,
These weeping eyes, those seeing tears."