Yuck! It’s gross outside! That humidity is ridiculous but enough about the weather!
Have you ever had to say goodbye? As a child, I was never one who had to say goodbye a lot. We moved when I was four and never moved again. In fact, most of my dad’s side of the family still lives in that community. Now there were the little goodbyes; saying goodbye to G and G after visiting them in the summer; saying goodbye to a new friend after meeting them at camp; etc! But then I went off to seminary—-where I was constantly saying goodbye! There was the goodbyes to the seniors as they graduated. There was the goodbye to the middlers as they went off to internship. There was the goodbye as we finished and left our new friends behind etc. Being a Master of Arts student it seemed like I was ALWAYS saying goodbye! The class I started with was on internship when I graduated….and when they came back to campus for their senior year, I was graduated and gone. Being the emotional person that I am those goodbyes were NEVER EASY for me! I think part of it was because these friendships mean the world to me and I knew that they would always be there for me etc! But it was never easy! A dear friend told me about a book titled “Praying Our Goodbyes” which has been a huge help to me in learning to pray my goodbyes! (However saying goodbye is still much easier said than done!)
As many of you, my faithful readers, know one of my best guy friends got married a year ago this next week and I have always called him “the younger brother I never wanted” because he calls me “the older sister he never wanted.” I am so happy for him and his wife! She is awesome, wonderful, etc! However they are moving on Tuesday. “Younger bro I never wanted” got a new teaching job so they are moving away from the community we have both lived in for the last four years. I am excited for this new adventure for them but I also find myself grieving! Grieving yet again; it was difficult when he got married because I knew our friendship probably would never be the same! Now dont get me wrong; I am so thankful he found the woman of his dreams etc, I just knew that it would involve some loss and grief; some grieving of a good friendship! I am so thankful for “Younger Brother Who I Never Wanted” and Mrs.”Younger Brother Who I Never Wanted!”
To learn more about about our friendship, you can read about it at these two posts:
Saying goodbye is never easy! But I think one of the reasons its hard for me is because these people/places/etc have been such blessings in my life! I just wish it was easier to say goodbye!!!
I remember my internship supervisor once saying (or maybe more than once) in the context of a funeral sermon or prayer service or privately to a grieving family — I don't recall the setting exactly, but the words are the most important — "You grieve much because you have loved much." Indeed.