There once was a young woman named Dolores

though all who knew her called her Lola

Within her burned a fire

a boundless capacity to love those around her

Like a morning sun, she brightened every room that she entered

Her laughter crackled in the air like a fireplace

and her heart smoldered with an unmatched love for all life

But most of all, she loved a young man

whose name has now been lost to time

 

Then one day, tragedy struck, and her lover was killed

and the whole world agreed that his death was senseless and unjust

Overcome with grief

Lola’s boundless love turned to sorrow

and the fire within her was transmuted into water

and she collapsed to the ground

and began to cry

 

The tears stained her cheeks and dampened her hair

But still her waters came

Her tears soaked the ground, and their salt killed the grass

But still her waters came

The ground turned into mud, and Lola sank down into the earth

And still her waters came

Finally, the earth could hold no more water

and a pool of tears lifted her back up from beneath the ground

as if she had been reborn from a grave

But her sorrow had not abated

and still her waters came.

 

Lola’s tears formed a puddle

and then a pond

on which she floated like a soggy, discarded leaf

Lola’s family waded into the lake to see her

and her friends took canoes to visit her

and the elders of her community built a raft to call upon her

They all said that they were sorry for her loss

and that they too mourned the death of her lover

and they begged her to stop crying

for her own sake

But Lola did not stop crying

and could not stop crying

and still her waters came, and came, and came

 

And her tears consumed all that was around her

The trees were covered by water, and drowned

Her village slipped beneath the surface, and was lost to time

The valley in which she lived flooded

and all the people that she knew fled or perished

Soon, the mountain peaks of her land had become mere islands among the waters

islands that, like Lola, had lost everything around them

Then, finally, the islands too were overtopped by the rising tide of Lola’s tears

And still her sorrow endured

 

Lola’s tears had formed an ocean that covered all the earth

and there was nothing left in the world but the Sky, the Ocean, and her

The Sky did not speak to her

because Sky thought it best not to get involved

But Ocean saw her, and did speak with her

 

“Young lady,” Ocean said “Why have you created me with your tears?”

Lola answered: “Because I grieve for my lost love.”

“I understand.” Ocean said. “I will try to carry your sadness, so that you do not have to. Am I large enough to hold all of your grief?”

“I don’t know.” Lola replied, and kept on crying.

 

The waters rose through the atmosphere until they reached the edge of space

and Sky was no more.

 

“We have lost the Sky.” Ocean observed

“Lola, have you cried all your tears now? When will it be enough?”

“It will never be enough” said Lola, as the tears kept coming

 

The Ocean fell silent and continued to rise

until it filled the void of space and reached the Moon

Lola’s ocean merged with all the waters of the moon

mixing with the Sea of Crises and the Sea of Serenity

with the Lake of Solitude and the Lake of Death

and with the Bay of Rainbows and the Marsh of Decay

One by one, all the waters of the moon mixed with Lola’s Ocean of Grief

until the whole moon became waterlogged

and sank reluctantly beneath the waves

and became no more.

 

And still Lola cried, and still her ocean swelled

until it reached all the way to the Sun

And the Sun put on a mighty battle for survival as the waters lapped its surface

The sun sent flares to boil away the ocean

and to dry the tears in Lola’s eyes

Sun and Ocean battled for a thousand years

but Lola’s grief was inexhaustible and still her waters came

until finally the sun was snuffed out and all fell into darkness.

 

“We have killed the Sun.” said Ocean

“There is nothing left to measure your grief against

and nothing left for it to consume

Now, am I finally large enough to carry all your sorrow?”

 

 

But Lola was too exhausted from her battle with the Sun to answer

Her eyes closed and the tears finally stopped

and she fell into a deep sleep

Unconscious, she sank beneath the waves that she herself had created

 

Down, down, down, she drifted

through the swells and the tides and the currents and the eddies

For years she slept

sinking ever deeper into the abyss of the ocean depths

Centuries passed

yet she did not wake even one time

as she passed down through the sunless void

 

But then, finally, Lola bumped into a rock at the bottom of the sea

and woke up

She could see that the rock was part of a field of small rolling hills

and she knew that these were all that were left of the mountains

that had once towered over her village

but which had now been eroded down to foothills

by the ceaseless action of her tears

She reached the muck that was all that remained of the forest

that she had played in during happier times

and saw the crumbled foundations that marked where her village had once stood

Scattered among the ruins were fragments of bone

and these were all that were left of the people that she had known and loved

 

And Lola was surprised to discover

that she could not remember the face of her beloved for whom she had cried

and she could not even remember his name

for she had slept so deeply

and so much time had passed

and her grief had so consumed her

that she could not hold his memory in her head

She swam among the ruins of the village

to try and find the grave of her beloved

so that she could read his name and remember him

but the gravesite had eroded away was lost forever to time

and all of her village that had known him were long since dead

 

Lola then realized that she had destroyed the world

and now could not understand why

Overburdened by shame

she screamed into the ocean

and with sound let loose all her sadness and anger and confusion into the water

She screamed and screamed

and such was the fury of her cry that it lasted for centuries

But finally, her scream was spent

Gasping for breath, she sucked in air

but there was no air beneath the waves

so she sucked in the ocean instead

And the ocean filled the void within her where once she held her love

and the waters were drained from the world

until they receded from the moon and the mountains

leaving behind only dry, barren land

 

And then Lola collapsed to the ground and died

and her body split open

And within her were her seeds

which had been fertilized by the endless waters of the ocean

And the seeds grew into flowers

and the flowers gave birth to animals

and some of the animals grew up to be humans

And the plants and the animals breathed together and made a new sky

 

Freed from its prison within her ribs

Lola’s heart, which had once burned with love for all the world

floated away up into the sky, beating like a butterfly on the breeze

And when her heart reached the top of the sky

it ignited into a ball of fire that became a new sun

 

And the world was restored and it was filled again with life

even though Life did not remember where it had come from

But the ocean remembers all

And that is why we should listen to the seas whenever we can

to be reminded that we are small and the world is large

and our grief, too, is small even though it feels large to us

And though we should free our grief from within us whenever we can

we should not let it become a prison or a poison to us

or to the world around us

for the world is more than the sum of the tragedies contained within it

and time heals all broken hearts

there is peace to be found in the mountains

and the sky

and the ocean

and the people

if only we look for it