One Way To Say Goodbye

When it’s time for them to go…although we’d love for them to stay We try to show we’re happy…when good friends move away. We remember the first time we said hello…and our body lets out a sigh. There’s still so much we want to do…we’re not ready to say goodbye For we know what made this friendship special…and makes us want to cry is everything that came between our first hello and this goodbye We’ve shared so many happy memories…which is why we’re unprepared to deal with the emptiness…of the memories unshared. How do we express to someone…the endless reasons why we will begin to miss them…the moment we say goodbye. How do we tell them how lucky we are that in our life they came… and how our family portraits…will never be the same… Then we remember the Cree Indians…and we’re happy thinking why in their entire language…they have no word to say goodbye. They prefer to end with hope…no goodbye…no farewell…no amen… Instead, when someone leaves their community they say…until we meet again. Perhaps they know the secret…embodied by the turtledove… that you can never say goodbye…to someone you’ve grown to love. And with this thought in mind…we hold our head up high… we blink away our tears…but we do not say goodbye… We look our good friend in the eye…we give them a hug…and then… we say Hello…getting a head start…for when we meet again…