Tears of Healing

(The tale of what a young girl was able to gain from her own tears.)
There was a young girl, innocent in action and naive in thought, who was tossed terribly by waves of constant hardship and turmoil. Eventually, lost in the confusion caused by the feeling of being punished having committed no crime, the gir

l fell to her knees and she cried. Large tears of pain and sorrow dropped from her face to the floor below. She cried to the sky, begging for an explanation as to why she was forced to endure such trials.
An angel came to the girl and asked her why she was crying. When the girl explained that she felt the anguish of one suffering greatly, and seemingly without cause, the angel crouched beside her.

"My child," said the heavenly being gently, "think less of why you're crying, and think more of what can come of such innocent tears."
Further confused now, the girl looked to the angel as tears continued streaming from her eyes. "But what good can my tears do?"
"That is something that you must come to understand, my darling child. This is what you shall do: collect in this teacup the tears which you cry. When the teacup is filled to the point that it is spilling from the sides, you will be able to feel the healing power of your own tears."
And with that the angel left. Hopeful of feeling better in the near future, the girl did as she was told, kneeling over the cup such that her large tears splashed inside. However, the girl occasionally became discouraged, for the fuller the teacup became, the more of her tears seemed to splash from the teacup onto the surrounding ground. The loss of what was meant to heal her lose hope for a moment, and she looked around to see a little boy looking lost and afraid. She left the teacup for a moment, and went to ask the boy what was wrong.
"I'm lost," said the child. "My mother has been taken from me, and now she's in a happy place, but I've been left behind and I don't know what to do on my own!"
The girl's eyes welled up once more, this time on behalf of the boy's pain. She embraced the boy for a moment, and then took his hand and ran back to her teacup, crying tears of sympathy into the dish. When the cup was running over with the salty water, the girl picked it up and handed it to the boy.
"Drink this!" She said, overcome with emotion. "You need the healing more than I."
As the young boy drank from the teacup, he knew that tears had been cried for him, and in this he found a comfort and a love which he could find nowhere else. As he hugged the girl and they both cried tears of joy, the girl knew that the healing power of the tears was not in drinking it herself.

For only in filling the needs of another and loving them with all her heart was she able to learn from and gain strength from her own tears.