Tears are often the telescope by which men see far into heaven.

Something opens while you are crying that stays shut the rest of the time. Grief strips away the small management of the day and leaves you looking at the largest questions you have. Many people see further in those hours: what matters, who matters, how brief all of it is. The clarity is not a reward for the pain, though it does tend to come with it.

If you are in one of those stretches, you do not have to make it useful. Let what becomes clear stay clear a while, and write down anything you would not want to lose when ordinary life closes over it again.