be thou my vision.

This past Sunday I spoke at one of our supporting churches here in the greater Atlanta area. I love to speak in front of people. I once went all the way to the national level of the National Management Association's American Free Enterprise Speech Contest. I think if you google my name you can still find Lockheed Martin intercompany documentation of my participation. (Please don't.) I once dreamed of starting a company where I would make speeches for people, traveling across the country to different conventions speaking in the stead of brilliant minds who may or may not suffer from a serious case of stage fright.

As I scanned the congregation during stories of widows, orphans, victims and reconciliation, I noticed several tears being shed by several different people.

I found myself wondering why they were crying. What was it, specifically, that touched them to the point of tears?

Tears, scientifically, have a perfectly logical explanation. The lacrimal glands secrete lacrimal fluid which flows through the main excretory ducts into the space between the eyeball and the lids. When the eyes blink, the lacrimal fluid is spread across the surface of the eye.

O sistema lacrimal
a = glândula lacrimal; b = ponto lacrimal superior;
c = canalículo superior; d = saco lacrimal;
e = ponto lacrimal inferior; f = canalículo inferior;
g = canal lácrimo-nasal.

But why do we cry when we're happy, sad, angry, or upset? When your emotions rise, your limbic system gets involved. If the emotion is intense enough to activate the receptors in the parasympathetic branch of your autonomic system, your lacrimal gland will begin to produce tears. And since it's linked to your nasal cavity, it can cause sniffly, runny noses, coughing and redness of face as well.


Thank you, class, Biology 101 has released for the day. Your homework: when was the last time you cried and why? I'm only joking.

"Perhaps our eyes need to be washed by our tears once in a while,
so that we can see Life with a clearer view again."
Alex Tan

My real question to you is this: did you see them?
They were in between the lines and in the margins.

They were in the back of your mind, underneath all the papers...

Sometimes it take a good cry for us to see things clearly.
Sometimes we're too busy to notice there is something worth shedding tears over.

Slow down. Look around. See Life.
Drink Coffee. Do Good.