Lessons from Crying Guy

I was sitting alongside the street watching vehicles pass by when I saw a guy stop his bike. He stopped and stood there for sometime until a woman arrived (who he had probably been waiting for). As soon as she arrived, he started crying.

He walked out of his bike and kept standing on the roadside crying. They talked for sometime. He was still crying.

The guy crying alongside the road with a woman

Something bad must have happened to him. Probably something which he never realized could have happened to him.

As soon as I saw him, I felt bad for him. Somewhere, I was happy that something that bad hasn’t happened to me.

I experienced a feeling of surrender: when something terrible happens, you can do nothing except to accept it with fear and wish it didn’t happen. After that, you see the world with gratitude. Small things won’t bother you anymore.

Let’s say, for example, you get irritated and angry when a random kid laughs at you for no reason. You get irritated and sometimes angry when that happens. Now lets suppose you’re sued for something and you are about to lose your house, car, assets and everything you own. You are about to go to jail. You’ll feel tensed, helpless and fear will eat you up.

While that happens, will you feel irritated and angry at the child for laughing?

That won’t bother you at all. There’s something bigger that’s bothering you, and you don’t care about the kid laughing. You’ll just look it as it is – a kid laughing.

In the similar way, when I saw that guy crying I experienced a feeling of surrender – that nothing is in my control. Instead of trying to hold everything I own, I thought of letting go. Letting go of thoughts, letting go of fear, letting go of my stress, letting go of my ego, letting go of everything I can possibly think of. And then, I felt free.

That’s what freedom tastes like – when you let go of everything you’re holding on to.

You own nothing in this world, even your own body.

I felt gratitude for everything after I saw the guy cry. I realized that something that bad hasn’t happened to me. And that I should be extremely happy for it.

But again, why do I only realize this when I see something bad happen? or only when something bad happens to me?

It probably is because we get so caught up in our life that we forget to contemplate our own life. We forget to feel gratitude for small things. We’re on our head. We just want everything to go right every day.

You have everything you need to live a comfortable life: eyes to see, legs to walk, lungs to breathe, etc.

Just think of a person who lost their eyes. They’ll never see again. Even if you keep them on a luxurious house or a mediocre house, they’ll never know the difference. They’ll never get to see the sunshine. They’ll never get to see the sunset. They’ll never see anybody’s face. They’ll never see anything, ever again.

Now see yourself: you have eyes. You can see the sunrise, the sunset, the people, use  technology, watch beautiful scenery, etc. Why are you sad?

Why do you want everything to go right? Why do you get angry at petty little things? Why you do you feel unfortunate? Why do you feel poor?

I think a person having a set of eyes with no money is richer than a person who has million dollars with no eyes. What’s the worth of million dollars when you don’t have eyes to see the world?

You have eyes, and that’s only a simple example. You not only have eyes, you have well functioning heart, lungs, kidneys, stomach, liver, legs, hands, etc. Why are you always feeling low?

It’s all because you never take time to realize how fortunate or lucky you are. You never feel gratitude for stuff that are around you.

I now think that a person who misses to feel gratitude has missed a important part in their life. These are lessons from crying guy.

Live life, don’t try to get by it.