Photography by Rosina Possingham
The Tears of Everything
A little known but well loved fable.
Long ago in a land far away, and gripped by grief’s powerful hold, a weary individual decided to collect her tears.
“What a waste,” she thought to herself, as the tears meandered endlessly down her cheeks, wetting first the collars of her shirts and then the shirts themselves.
She gathered her soaked garments and wrung them dry, carefully catching the tears in buckets and bowls and cups, lo every vessel she could find, and used them to power a great fountain.
Word of this beguiling monument spread and the towering tiered fountain quickly became an icon for sad people around the world. They would come from all corners of the globe to spend time with the fountain. They came on foot, on horseback and on bicycle, carrying buckets of their own tears with them to keep the fountain flowing.
It grew taller and taller, and became a spectacular vision that could be seen across the land. The people would gather and share their grief and their sorrow and as the fountain washed over them they came to realise they were not alone.
They laughed and danced as the tears spilling from the fountain took on many shapes and colours and glistened in the light like gold.
This shared heartache had sparked a transformation: what began as a place of quiet despair had become a shining beacon of communal repair.