When you weep and you know not why, consider the tears a blessing that wash away long-buried sorrow. You need not be afraid of sorrow. It has been long-buried because you were afraid of it.

What if sorrow is not a bad thing? What if sorrow is a canoe that takes you to shore, or a railroad track that leads into the far-distant land. What if sorrow comes to comfort you? What if sorrow is a friend, one of those friends who cares very much about you and who points out something that you might have missed had they not? What if you didn't have to shunt sorrow away? What if you knew sorrow was a messenger of great import, a messenger that has come to your door to tell you that you had a great-seeming disappointment, and now it is time for you to move on?

What if you don't have to weep at sorrow? Or weep for long?

What if, in your life, you welcome everything that comes, give it its due, and then move to the next station?

You do not have to prevent sorrow from coming or the events that seem to incur it. Instead, keep your thoughts about your life from being laden with sorrow. It is your thoughts that drown you in sorrow, not the seeming cause. Your mind has said to you: "This is a dreadful happening. Alas, poor me." Your mind has beat a drum that signals sorrow to you.

Instead, let your thoughts become a reward to you. Let your thoughts become another best friend who sees you through thick and thin. Let your thoughts be wise and not make too much of things. Whatever transpires, it is not the end of the world. And your life is to venture in, not to stop in.

Let your thoughts be swash-buckling heroes who dash through the fray and let nothing stop them. They come out of even jungles undashed, ready for the next adventure. Instruct your thoughts to encourage you rather than discourage. Let your thoughts be allied soldiers who marshal to your aid.

Sorrow is a passing thing so do not be sorry about it. When someone is in the throes of sorrow, be kind to them, even when that person is yourself. Yet sorrow is not a cup of tea to linger over.

You have made sorrow into a kind of sweet suffering. You have collected your sorrow from the past and swept it up into the present under a guise that something hurtful occurred to you. Your lingering thoughts do not have to dwell on the seeming sadness of life.

Get up from your grieving and walk into life.

Gird yourself with joy.

Joy is as available as sorrow.

Remember gratitude. Gratitude is a great servant to you and a lifter of spirits. Gratitude awaits your beck and call. Let gratitude rather than sorrow stand by your side. You have had enough of sorrow and probably not enough of gratitude.

When you keep sorrow to you, you have put your heart in an envelope and sealed it. Release your heart from that envelope. It has been relegated there long enough. Even vagrant sorrow from an hour ago has had its time and is ready to leave. There is no set time for sorrow. It is not an obligation. Do not let it be a deterrent. Go forth in life even with the black crow of sorrow cawing on your shoulder. It will leave you soon enough. It will leave you, and a bluebird will come in its stead. Or a red cardinal.