I'm not the only one!

Everyone cries differently.

Once, I remember doing the voice part for the animated story of Ruth, and when we got to the part where the girls part with Naomi, they were to "lift up their voices and weep". I have never raised my voice to cry--that is just not the way I cry. So, when I was told, "Just let your voice out," I tried, but then I was told it sounded like I was laughing, and I heard someone whispering I must be embarrassed. That wasn't it. I didn't know how to make those sounds people called "natural".

Well, in the book I'm reading, p.317, a person with the exact same problem goes to a funeral and is told she needs to cry. Her herculean efforts to produce heartbroken wailing results in first a ripple of laughter then an uproar. See there, I chuckled, and felt a smidgeon of vindication as I read--I'm not the only one.

Oh--this is a sketch made from a photo I saw in Okinawa. It was taken when the kids were little, just before bedtime. My daughter reached down to her little brother, assuring him, "Don't worry. Your Big Sis will be by your side all your life." It was a precious picture.

I know it looks like my son wants to cringe and cry at the thought. But that is because the artist is only a year and a half into her craft and doesn't know how to draw expressions right yet. Give it time, and maybe some drawings will be more accurate and bring out smiles instead of making you want to cry.

Besides, everyone smiles differently too.