It's been a long time since my last post, and I have had other blog entry ideas, but this is what I have been thinking about lately.
A couple weeks ago I helped host a vision and recruiting night for Josiah Venture at school. It was the first time I got see a couple people I haven't seen since the summer. My coleader, Bonnie Boyd, was one of them. I asked her about her missionary training with MTI in Colorado. One of the most useful sessions they had there was on saying goodbye well. She said that gave her a lot of insight on how she had not said goodbye well when she had left for missions in the past and how she can change that when she leaves in the future.
This small part of the conversation has gotten me thinking about saying goodbye well because I'll be saying goodbye to a good number of friends in few weeks since I'm graduating from college and headed back to Texas and all. I had written a blog on goodybes at the beginning of last summer - how being a Christian affects goodbyes, reunions, and new frienships, but I did not think about how do say goodbye well.
So I ask myself these days, "How do I say goodbye well? What do good goodbyes look like?" Part of it is respecting the weight of the goodbye, and it may weigh heavier on others than myself. It is entering into the emotion with them and saying goodbye in that place. I may be excited to leave and ansy. My mind may be on the journey ahead rather than on the relationship and the ensuing goodbye. I think it looks like being fully present in those moments of goodbye. I think recognizing the "finality" of it is important as well. Say a real goodbye and acknowledge it as a real goodbye. Do not hide under the potential of Facebook or Skype. Let the actuality of those speak for the potential that is there. Because it is goodbye, and it is unsure of when, if at all, we will see each other in person in this life again. That's reality.
Maybe this is a part of it. Maybe it is none of it. This is a new place for me. Saying goodbye after high school is far from saying goodbye at the end of college. So, what is a good goodbye, and what does it look like? I am praying I'll find out in a few weeks time.
