1. Loneliness

Loneliness from not having someone at the most depressing moment of your life is one of the many reasons why people cry. Or could it be loneliness or homesickness from being away from home. I feel that most of the time now that I am living in a country miles away from my mother, siblings, close relatives and friends. And yes, I shed a tear or two because I just simply miss them.

2. Fear

When I was in second grade, I was looking outside our classroom thinking of an answer for one item in our mid-term exam, when I saw two men falling from a building. I cried right there and then because I was so scared. My fear was they both died and I saw them and I couldn’t do anything. When my brother was three years old, he cried when the lights were out because he feared that monsters and beasts would come and get him.

3. Love

It happens when we fall in love and when we fall out of love. The overflowing emotion just opens the floodgates of the Kingdom of Tears and before you know it, you just find yourself weeping. When I look at my children, I can't just help myself from crying. They're miracles of love and I can't help but be emotional about it.

4. Hate

Oh, this is so strong a word but allow me to use this here. I have only hated two or three people in my life and they have made me cry because they're inconsiderate, insensitive and inconsistent. I don't like hating someone because I feel like I strip off happines from my own system. So I guess that's the reason why I just cry it out; because tears, in this case, express the extent of hate that no words can make up for.

5. Frustration

I wasted 30 sheets of bond paper just on circles in a drafting exercise when I was in first year high school. I couldn't get it right no matter how hard I tried. It was just frustrating that I refused to do the school work until my artsy brother stepped in and helped me out. I stopped crying. End of story.

6. Death

There is life after death; hence we must be happy because our loved one is in a much better place now. So goes the usual homily of the priest in Catholic burial rites I have attended so many times. But people still weep because there is nothing like losing someone physically and losing him or her forever... especially when the person who left this world is one of the few good-natured ones.

7. Joy

"Twins!" That's what the doctor said on my first ultrasound. My husband, who was seated just across the monitor, fell off from his seat as tears streamed down my face. Pure joy accompanied by pure tears. I have always wanted twins and at that moment, I knew I was the blessed one.

Charles Dickens in Great Expectations said, "Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts." So go ahead and cry. Don't worry, tears exist to clean your eyes, that's what my Grandfather used to say. How about you? Any thoughts on tears and crying?