Saying goodbye does not mean losing the memories. In fact, treasuring and protecting those memories is a privilege and responsibility. A few years ago and even farther back than that, legal records, family trees, photographs, and more recently, movies and VCR tapes composed our record of the past. The digital age has increased our record-keeping. We can also tell our story in our words, verbally and in writing. Deciding what mementos to save for ourselves and future generations is also a privilege and responsibility.
Some goodbyes are out of choice; some are forced upon us. Some are temporary, some permanent. Time forces us to say goodbye to childhood, adolescence, and "youth." As years go by, parents must say goodbye to their "babies," to their college-bound teenagers, to their "children" going away because of marriage or moving to other homes, even other countries. Almost half of us will have to say goodbye to a spouse, a husband or a wife.
Some goodbyes are beneficial, like saying goodbye to bad habits. Other goodbyes are very sad and need a recovery period. Adjusting to a new normal takes a lot of work but gives us an opportunity to renew ourselves and plan our future.
Many people believe that we don't have a final goodbye, that after death, we will live in heaven and be reunited with those that have already passed on. Others look to nature where everything that lives, dies, and turns into small bits of matter. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. No matter what you believe, we have to say goodbye to our life on earth.
On a brighter note, many goodbyes enable new hellos. Goodbye past. Hello today. Hello future.
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