May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand ~ Irish Blessing
Hello Visitor,
And now that I’ve welcomed you, I wanted to talk to you about saying goodbye. People come into our lives for a reason, for a season or for our entire life. When you understand why they walked into your life, you will know what to do when one day they say goodbye… and then you will be able to have them leave without pain.
When someone is in your life for a reason, they might be there with the purpose of helping you through a difficult time and providing you with the support, guidance, and emotional or spiritual help you need. Or perhaps they’re here because that is exactly what you can offer them. Either way, the reason they are in your life is something that has an end date, and when the support is no longer needed for whatever reason, you each easily go your separate way. Or not. Sometimes it’s not so easy.
There are people who enter our lives for a season, each of us bringing each other enough joy to continue on. But sometimes, on a particular day, that person can say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. People can leave us abruptly… sometimes without ever saying goodbye. We must understand that our needs had been met for a season, our desires fulfilled for a time until their ‘job’ in our life was done.
When a relationship ends because of irreconcilable differences, it’s best to not look back. Easy to do? No. But lifesaving, still. Why would you cling on a specific season when deep in your soul you know the cycle has ended? You can cry all you like, and sometimes it’s a good release, but it will not bring back the season. In winter, you can’t cry for autumn. Faint and kick, throw yourself on the floor… but the person will not come back simply because you are pining for what once was. You must let them go. Their season in your life has ended.
Life goes on and continues to offer you new and fresh seasons with renewed colors and fresh beginnings. Open your heart and mind to it! When people only enter our lives for a season it’s because it is their predestined time to leave, grow, and learn from you, and allow for you the chance to start anew. A seasonal visitor may bring you peace or make you laugh like no one else can. That love that came in your life’s Summer may have taught you things you’d never have attempted. They became an endearing friend who brightened your spaces and warmed your soul. Say Thank You, Summer, and then move on to a new season with different, exciting colours and opportunities.
Paulo Coelho said, “One always has to know when a stage comes to an end. If we insist on staying longer than the necessary time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the other stages we have to go through.”
Did you lose your job? Has a loving relationship come to an end? Did you leave your parents’ house? Gone to live abroad? Has a long-lasting friendship ended all of a sudden? You can spend a long time wondering why this has happened. But I want to say that they have left us with the gift of things we can and must use to rebuild for our present and future emotional growth. Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters – whatever name we give it, what matters most is knowing we must leave in the past the moments of life that have come to an end and let the people whose time is done with us GO…
Oh, but then there are the people who stay for every season, offering and receiving joy with us on earth as long as God will allow. They are a blessing. Hold them tight.
Thank you for entering my life, if even for just a short while. I am grateful for you.
In gratitude,
Elsie