Any time I feel like it, so there!

There was a song by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons about "Big Girls Don't Cry" in the 1960's.  I'm starting a campaign all these years later to change the name to "Big Girls Can Cry".

How often are we told to keep in touch with our emotions, but don't bother others with them?  I've seen friends ripped to shreds on social media for the simple act of expressing a darker side to their nature.  Well, I'm sorry, but keeping in touch with my emotions equals allowing them to be an active part of my daily life; my current being.

I don't think many people realize that they're pushing someone down/away when they say they don't want to hear your "drama."  Okay, I'll admit to getting my fill of the perpetual soap opera of some folks' lives, but I guess what I'm talking about here is when you're all stressed out and you don't know which end is up any more and it's all closing in quickly and you just need to vent or cry.  You know, if I'm just given the opportunity to get it off my chest, chances are that I'm going to settle down more quickly than I am if I feel I must be evasive and tamp what's bubbling up back into the compartment from which it escaped.

Scripture tells us that in God, in Jesus, we live, move and have our being.  Jesus came to earth and lived as a man for 33 years.  Hebrews tells us that He experienced everything we ever will, but without sin.  Now, change pace totally.  The shortest verse of recorded Scripture is two words:  "Jesus wept."  He wept over the death of His friend Lazarus before He raised him from the dead.  Jesus also wept in the garden the night before His crucifixion.  He wept with mourning, with knowledge of what was to come:  "Father, if you can take this burden from me..."  Nobody told Jesus to suck it up and just move on when things were hurtful.  He sought His Father, and then took the responsibility assigned to Him and moved on.  

It's okay to be sad, mad, grieving, worrying, whatever.  Scripture tells us to cast all our cares upon Him for He cares for us, but we're human and that doesn't always happen easily.

Love one another as I have loved you.  Love your neighbor as yourself.  We are too busy hiding behind the social programming we have been set up to act out to do this any more.  Don't reveal any of your true self; someone will make fun of you or turn you in.  This has to end.

Pete Seeger wrote a song about "Little Boxes," that I just love:  "and a pink one, and a blue one, and a green one and a yellow one, little boxes filled with ticky-tacky, little boxes all the same."
That's who we've become, you know:  little boxes all the same.  Maintain the strain, that's the buzzword.  Never let 'em see you sweat.

To hell with ticky tacky.  I'm an individual who has feelings I want to let out, to talk out.  I'll cry any time I want to cry.  Who are you to tell me what's appropriate and what's not?  Give everyone the respect you want for yourself.

Big girls can cry any time they damn well feel like it.