I walked to my special place and sat on the clifftop looking out over the bay where I promptly found myself weeping. A stranger appeared and saw my tears and asked, “Why are you crying?” I replied:
“I’m crying because the sky is blue and the sea is full of diamonds. Because the sun is strong enough to warm my winter bones and I can smell warmth radiating from the earth and because I can feel the breeze through my hair and on my face. I’m crying because it’s March and it’s spring and because everything is arriving in such a wonderful hurry. I’m crying because the Blackthorn is flowering and each time I pass it by I feel as though it is my dearest friend in all the world and want to fling my arms around it. I’m crying because there are yellow gorse flowers and robins and blackbirds and swooping seabirds. I’m crying because all these things I see outside of me feel as though they’re also inside me and because holding that much beauty inside is painful and almost too much to bear. I’m crying because on days like this I desperately never want to die. Not ever. Not ever ever. Let me stay here forever with the birds and the trees and the sea! I’m crying because I’m grateful and happy and because the miracle feels so close.”
Having finished my explanation, I looked at the stranger and asked:
“Why aren’t you crying, too?”