I know it sounds bizarre, but I do have a “liquid personality.”  For me, crying is a frequently-used emotion.  I have strong feelings about  many different things.  There are times when I have been told that I care too much.  But I don’t believe that.  One’s behavior can be judged by others, but I don’t think it’s ever that simple or easy to understand another person’s reactions.  And it’s unhelpful as well.

One time, I had a problem and was very upset and crying.  Friends were close by and gathered around me to support me and just “be there” for me.  The more they showed me love and compassion, the more I cried because their loving words and actions touched me deeply.  It can be hard to explain that the loving care I was feeling touched me so much that my emotional response grew as a result.  So as I continued to cry, they began to give me more and more tissues so that it created a huge pile of wet ones on the table in front of me.

I decided to just tell people that I have a “liquid personality.”  I started saying this as an explanation to my doctors, therapists and friends when I would cry in their presence.  It made some of them laugh and that made me so happy!  I love it when something that I do or say amuses another person.  And then it makes me laugh too.

Having a “liquid personality” isn’t a terrible thing for me.  It saves me from having unreleased emotions trapped inside my mind and my body.  I guess I have more than my share of them.  Thanks to my parents, I was never told not to cry.  In fact, in our family, we laughed a lot.  And I don’t remember crying unless I physically hurt myself.  The longer I live and the older I am, I feel things more deeply and care more deeply.  It’s a good thing to feel these ways.  And I am especially equipped to handle them, because I have a “liquid personality.”