~ The Best Goodbye ~
We all know when it’s time to leave.
We don’t always go when we first feel that inner sadness, that yearning.
There are so many ways to say goodbye. The long ones that we hold on to that only make it that much more difficult to leave with the shedding of many tears.
We hold on so tightly as if to press a memory into ourselves, like some garden pansy in an old book.
Then there are the goodbyes that come upon us quickly when we sense we are no longer welcome or don’t wish to continue on in the presence of the company that we have been keeping.
A goodbye can come with anger, with sorrow, or with a sense of both relief and the freedom of the open road and the sudden lack of stress.
Leaving before ugly things are said, or not leaving until we are satisfied that everything has been said. To hurt as much as we have been hurt, for closure, for good, forever.
Some goodbyes are the “I never want to see you again” kind. Then there are the “until we meet again…” or the “soon, my love, soon,” kind.
A sadness that is matched only by our courage and bravery, and as we turn to go away, we feel as if we are going off to face a war alone and that we will surely get a medal for the difficulty
of this task.
How many times have we said goodbye in our lives? It seems we say them everyday in either the silence of our hearts, perhaps shutting out a love that we know will never come to pass.
Tears are shed, with a passing song or some other reminder… at other times it takes all we have to do the leaving not even being able to say anything.
Trying to say this goodbye and make it happen takes all the strength we have. We have come to a crossroads and made a decision.
There have never been very many goodbyes filled with elation. If they were at first, that soon becomes stale and eventually dwindles to some kind of sadness.
Eyes, smiles, voices, moments or words and laughter are brought into our mind's even against our own will.
There are the goodbyes that we do without turning to look back, feeling that this in itself can be punishment enough for either an imagined or real misdemeanor. They might be watching to see if we turn, to see if we care. And although we may want to have one last look that pulls like a magnet, we may have found that the best goodbye of all is the one that is said quickly.
