When the heart is full the eyes overflow
Sholom Aleichem
As we taxied down the runway I felt fine, and then as we left the ground and banked around, I looked down on the sea of blue-topped houses and the tears started to fall.
I had been in Cambodia for less than a week and, like every other time, the country and its people got to me. So, as we left I found myself once again with wet cheeks.
Tears aren’t always accepted. I have been told on a number of occasions to pull myself together and stop being so emotional. But I have learnt to listen to my tears, for they often have something to tell me. Something that my heart knows but my brain hasn’t caught on to yet.
Cambodia is one of those examples. I first knew I needed to travel to there when they mentioned it at church and tears flowed freely down my face. I had not yet set foot in the country and somehow, I knew it held a place in my heart.
To be honest a lot of what I experience in Cambodia is held in my heart.
For it is very hard for my brain to process the pain and tragic history of that country. It is hard for me to keep in balance the extreme poverty that I see on each and every trip, and the hope that is also seen every trip. My brain for all its amazing powers of reason and deduction just collapses when faced with these contradictions.
But in contrast, my heart seems to swell to encompass both the heartache and the hope, the ongoing present pain and suffering, and the potential in these people and this land. With Cambodia my heart is full, and so my eyes overflow.