Redominatelife

The Day a Stranger Taught Me How to Cry Inward

It was one of those afternoons when the world just feels heavier than usual. I found myself outside, sitting quietly, the kind of quiet that almost aches. A few tears slipped down my face — nothing dramatic, a  release, the kind you don’t even realize you need until it’s happening.

I thought I was alone, but apparently, I wasn’t. A man, a stranger, noticed me. He didn’t approach with pity or those awkward, well-meaning words that usually make things worse. Instead, he walked down a few feet away, giving me my space. After a few moments, he simply said, “You know, you don’t have to let the whole world see it to feel it.“

I looked up at him. Then he told me something I’ll never forget:

“As a man, you will cry — you’ll need to cry. But you can cry inward. You can feel everything without giving everything away. You don’t have to betray your own emotions to the world to honor them within yourself.”

It wasn’t a lesson about hiding or pretending nothing was wrong. It was about dignity. About holding your own grief with strength instead of letting it scatter at your feet. About mastering your emotions without denying them.

He showed me — not through a lecture, but just in his presence — that sometimes strength isn’t in the absence of emotion, but in how we carry it. I sat there for a while longer, letting the tears dry naturally, breathing deep into myself, feeling it all — but this time, holding it differently. Holding it closer. Holding it in a way that made me feel stronger, not weaker.

That stranger changed something in me that day. I never even caught his name. But I’ll always remember what he gave me: a way to cry inward, and keep walking forward like a man should — heart full, head high.
Until next time…