Her story about the balloons reminds me of a similar story:
Tear Toss: There was a woman who adored her husband and her family more than anything in the world. She felt loved and lucky and strong. But when her beloved husband abandoned her and her four children, there were often times she felt she could go on no longer, her strength ebbed from her faster than she could renew it. The one and only thing she could think to do to ease her suffering was to follow her overwhelming desire to get to the ocean. And so, in the middle of a cold Indiana December, she and her four children ventured westward on a pilgrimage she knew could lighten their heavy hearts.
As soon as they landed she borrowed her brother's car and drove straight to the Pacific Ocean. Within a couple of hours they found a rocky cliff overlooking the frothing blue sea and so she pulled over to the side of the road and unloaded her brood. She and her children hiked through the dark cypress grove, down the pristine meadow of succulents and sea grass, straight to the cliffs. Each one of them carried a golden bag filled with clear stones--tears that she and her children had shed since the man they all loved had left them.
It was windy and sunny and perfect. When she reached the edge of the cliff, she and her four precious children opened their bags, said a prayer to the ocean, to the sky and to the universe. They asked for this great and powerful ocean to take away the sorrow that they carried within these glass stones. One by one the five brave souls tossed their tears into the roiling waters, kissing each one as they did.
As they watched the waters swallow their tiny stones, something in them stirred. And as they walked back through the meadow and grove to their car, the earth felt more solid under their feet and the air lighert to breath.
