Fabulous Julie.
I tear up easy, and sometimes unexpectedly..My hubby could tell stories of me leaving Trader Joe's in tears because the old man in front of us seemed lonely to me...
It doesn't take much...mostly.. the gentle touch of a child... or anything sad about animals!

Aw... Taylor... That's really lovely to be so moved by the elderly guy in front of you. *sniff*

I cry all the time. Dawn - I'm totally with you about crying while watching Glee! That show is such a tearjerker.

Speaking of animal stories, here's the latest one I read that had me in tears:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07.....wanted=all

Maya, that must have been one depressing project. I read TGT only as an adult, and I am always surprised that little kids like it. I am not sure at what age they understand that it is so very sad.
It's interesting that many things that make me cry are often not the most tragic or powerful. I even know I am being manipulated at the time.
Mac, your story about your niece is so vivid! Although those scenes happen every week in my house, so I've built up some immunity to them.

Just start crying in front of me. I will probably start too. I am excessively sympathetic. (This wouldn't work though if I didn't like you, but I am sure I would.)

I cry easily too, and always have, but even more so after having kids. Recently I read E. Nesbits children's novel the Railway Children to my daughter (7). I cried almost every single chapter!

When I have someone crying in front of me, I tend to hold it together to help them out. However, I'm a sap when watching movies or tv commercials that have happy or sad bits to them. Of course my kids and my hubby pull at my heart strings.

Mac, once when my eldest son was three, we were at our neighborhood meet and greet. He went up to two slightly older kids with a big smile on his face. They both looked at him and asked him how old he was. After he answered, they said angrily, "No, you can't play with us because we are both 4 and you are only 3!" Then they left him just standing there not knowing what to do and his big smile turned to a confused look. So I called him over and said reassuringly that it didn't matter how old someone is, we should enjoy playing with anyone. Then we went and played ball together. It was so hard for me to keep my face calm during that time and I still am tearing up thinking about it.

Goodnight Mr. Tom is the book which always made me cry I don't think I would be capable of reading to the girls.

Yes, seeing your child experience their first rejection is heart breaking, Teah looks so much older then actual age and some of the older girls at the park started laughing at her for still wearing a nappy. She was two and half and I had to very quietly and calmly enlighten the girls of that fact.

Kristine, I loved reading your story I'm quite happy sifting through a huge file of paperwork and determining what's important. Your job fascinates me.

Animal abuse is just vile, I can't bring myself to watch the videos or read the articles.

Angie, I would cry too if I was able to give you a hug, we had best meet somewhere very quiet!

Oh yes Goodnight Mr Tom is definitely a tearjerker. I don't think I'd read that one aloud though - they can read it themselves when they are able. I really only read the Railway Children because I picked up a video of the old movie and wanted my DD to hear the novel before she saw it.

I loved Kristines story too.

I know I could not read that book to the girls, I had to read a couple of chapters out loud when I was at school and had tears streaming down my face. I used to love The Railway Children.

oh gosh... I'm another emotional gal that doesn't take a lot to end up in tears! Although, like some of you, if there is no one else able to be the "strong" person, I can easily be that person for the sake of everyone else, but as soon as I don't have to be that person anymore I'm in tears.

Books and movies do it all the time - even stuff that's not sad - just anything remotely emotional and I'm a mess. I balled the entire way through seeing the Lion King when I was a child because I just lost it the moment the dad died - and I've never watched it again!

For the Aussies - the book Seven Little Australians... oh lordy - I'm a mess reading it, and my copy is a truly beautiful book, and Em wants me to read it to her but I've been putting it off because I know what I'll be like.

But, the thing I'm finding that sets me off most lately is anytime anyone asks me about Em's school - I just love it so much and love the family feel of it, so as soon as I start describing it I end up teary! Even writing about it brings tears to my eyes.

My children choke me up more than anything these days although this weekend it was my husband who did it when we actually had time to have a long talk! Otherwise I cry over books - many times you can find me with tears running down my face with a book in hand. As a girl I must have cried over Beth dying in Little Women a million and one times!

It doesn't take much to set the emotions going for me either. One that comes to mind was my 4 yr olds first concert at pre-school a few months ago. Oh my goodness!! Also weddings always set me off ... all that love and emotion Also I work in the health care industry and sometimes when clients tell me their story I get a bit teary - hmm, not very professional!

I cry at everything, TV shows and commercials especially. The one that still makes me well up is that AT&T one from waaaaaay back in the 80s, where the mom is crying at the kitchen table and her husband asks why she is crying.

"Our son called."
"Is there something wrong?"
"No." Cries softly. "He said he just called to say, 'I love you, Mom'."

If I am the only one who remembers that, I will truly be showing my age!

I don't get teary eyed, my husband says I am tearless - I am often moved, but just not to tears. But this past weekend, as my son I were running some errands, we ran into the Pan Mass Challenge. An enormous, cancer charity bike ride that takes two days and ends on the tip of Cape Cod.

I was so moved by the hundreds of riders, many with stuffed animals on their helmets, others with pictures of loved ones who succumbed to cancer.......The ride goes by our house every year, but it really moved me this year for some reason.

I am old enough to remember that commercial Kristen!! Was that the "reach out and touch someone" era?

Mac, I can fully understand your feelings with your niece, When someone is unkind and cruel to a child we love it hurts us 10x more:(....lump in throat.

Guys, you're killing me here! I'm sitting here at work, yes, with tears rolling down my cheeks!
As you can tell from this, I'm a massive mushball and cry very easily, though I've tried to learn to control it ever since an absolutely devastating split-up a few years ago. In fact I think I'm so emotional right now because he's marrying someone else on Saturday and I still can't handle thinking about it all. Dozens and dozens of songs can stir up all those emotions too, and off I go.
Other things that make me cry. The animal thing, absolutely. I can't handle stories of abuse one bit. But sometimes Reva doing something cute like putting her head in my lap at work can make me at least blink.
Some of the songs I used to sing in choral groups can do it for me, and that always feels cathartic and wonderful.
You know that scene in Forrest Gump where Tom Hanks is talking to Jenny at her grave? Yeah, I'm done. Ditto for the book "Where the Red Fern Grows," the opening of "Emily of New Moon," the end of "A Fine Balance..." and so on.
I got happily teary last week watching my best friend get married to an absolutely fabulous guy... We used to play wedding with our barbie dolls, so watching her do it in real life was surreal and fabulous.
Taylor, I sympathize with you on crying over when someone seems lonely. I remember seeing a child on the bus who wanted to pet McClure (old guide dog), and he sounded so sad and grateful when I let him do it then sat by him so we could chat. He sounded like I used to at the same age when I was going through a tough social time too, and I was all choked up.
Wow, this is depressing!
Ok, sometimes I cry when I laugh so hard that my tear ducts activate..and fortunately I laugh as easily as I cry. I can also be extremely solid at times of stress. Corey's stint in hospital last year comes to mind.

Angie, sorry my outfits make you cry! Must come up with happy ensemble!

1. Animals. Hearing or seeing any animal that is unloved just kills me a little inside and I can't help but cry. I cry when I leave the pet store after purchasing food and seeing the adoptable dogs out front. I cry when I donate food to them. I always wear sunglasses when I leave Petco.

2. Music. Specifically, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Handel's Messiah, and Barber's Adagio for Strings

I cry for anything related to sad animals too. I also volunteer about 40 hours a week with an animal rescue group, which means every day I get desperate e-mails from shelters with photos of the cats they have there that are going to be put down, begging me to find a place for them before they die. I can't find places for them all, so I'm sure you can imagine how much I cry. It can be pretty unbearable.

The Giving Tree always makes me cry, as does Charlotte's Web. There were many episodes of the show Lost this past season that sent me into crying fits, and even more episodes of Friday Night Lights (I bawled at the end of the season one finale).

Taylor, looking at lonely people can make me cry as well. My boyfriend told me about a guy he worked with who has one season ticket to see the Washington Capitals, because he is a widower. I cried for days over him, imagining how he loved his wife and then she died, and now he goes solo to hockey games. Later my boyfriend told me he had been mistaken, and the guy just likes to go to games alone--his wife is alive and well! I was about to kill my boyfriend when I found out. Along those lines, I cried hysterically during the flashback scene at the beginning of the movie Up.

I also cry sometimes when I see immigrants standing in groups, waiting for someone to pick them up for day labor. When it is the middle of the day and they are still waiting, I get so sad. It all seems so tragic sometimes.

Oh Steph, I had a little bubble at UP as well, even Wall-E gets to me.

Isabel, I completely understand about the cycle, I completed the Edinburgh Moonwalk mid June (10,000 women and men, wearing decorated bras pounding the streets at midnight) and the sight of some of Edinburgh's famous landmarks glowing bright pink in honour of breast cancer research really affected me.
http://www.walkthewalk.org/Cha.....tingUpPink

Michelle, the forum will hold your hand through this difficult time and you ARE very strong!

Oh gosh, I tear up even when there is a sad scene in a comedy movie. Gives everybody plenty to tease me about - all the time.

Steph - I howled laughing reading your "widower" story.

BethW - Wow. Your DearHubby is very lucky to have you weep for him.

AJ - You showed great restraint in not taking those 2 "big" 4 year-olds aside and giving them a piece of your mind.

Mac, I think he makes me a better person. And believe me, that's a full-time job.

I didn't read The Giving Tree until I was an adult and good grief, is it depressing. I have to admit I really don't like it and as a children's book? No thanks.

Getting an email from my best friend who moved back to the States in June. He is hilarious and the sweetest person ever so I'm somewhere between laughing myself senseless and crying my eyes out at the moment.

I have to add another one...

I was at school this morning helping out with reading groups but before class started the teacher got Em to do a little writing exercise that some of the other kids did yesterday and she was sooooo good - she has started to sound out words and spell them to write them out - she's growing up and learning so much *sniff sniff*

Wow, I don't think my body could physically produce enough tears to cry over some of the things I have read here. I feel like a robot next to all of you.

There is one thing I thought about though.

I had a very dear friend throughout college. Whenever I was down, all I had to do was think of him and I would instantly feel better. This was not a romantic relationship at all. We really were just friends. I know it's hard for most women to wrap their heads around, but such relationships DO exist. Anyway, the point is that he was someone I took immense comfort in. We would speak every day and always had very lively, memorable conversations about everything from music to politics to science. He was always very chatty and had an opinion on just about everything. He was also extremely smart and I was always learning new things from him. I really couldn't praise him enough.

Then in 2007 we just stopped talking. I tried to maintain the relationship as best as I could but it was hard. I was just out of surgery, and he had moved to DC to start a new job and move in with his new girlfriend, who he expected to marry. I haven't really spoken to him since. Sometimes I would write to him on Facebook but he would usually either ignore me or just post 2 words in response. I still think about him just about every day. I really miss the relationship we used to have. It was one of a kind, and it really still hurts so much to think that he didn't value me or my friendship and let such a special relationship come to an abrupt end like that. That makes me teary sometimes, like now I actually get more upset thinking about him than I do any of my actual past boyfriends.

Maya, hugs for that. I'm not at all good about losing relationships, be they friendships or romantic involvements, so I really feel for you here.

Hey, does anyone else ever get teary when you hear a song and the lyrics happen to sum up *exactly* what you're thinking or feeling at that moment? Or is that just me being weird.

Oh, and on the weepy children's book front...for some reason I find the book Heidi intensely sad. Especially the parts where she's in Frankfurt and can't communicate how lonely and awful she feels.

So true Michelle, Music invokes all kinds of emotion...sadness being one of them:(

That makes me sad Maya...I have had similar ubrupt endings:(

Maya, I had a male friend in college exactly like that, only without the sad ending. So sorry. Is it possible that he valued your companionship so deeply that he felt it would create problems for him with his wife?

Maya, I know exactly how you feel. I had a friend like that in law school, and he no longer speaks to me. I ended up finding out that his now-wife prohibited him from doing so. I think it's a totally crappy excuse and says something very sad about his wife and their relationship, but it doesn't make the loss hurt less. I also have a failed friendship with my very best friend from growing up. Thinking about the way our friendship once was and what it has become definitely brings tears to my eyes.

Michelle, music can definitely make me tear up. As a Canadian, you might appreciate that the one song that gets me every time is "You Needed Me" by Anne Murray. I cried the first time I heard the song, and I'm not quite sure why (I was probably about five years old), and it still makes me teary.