I know this is a subject that I have talked about many times. So some of this may sound like something I have said before and that is okay. There are a lot of goodbyes that are painful and hard, especially when it comes to saying goodbye to someone you were once very close to. I have had to say goodbye to at least a few people who meant the world to me, whether it was a friendship or a romantic partner in my lifetime. It never gets any easier, but you have to remind yourself why you walked away to begin with and said goodbye to that person. That leads me into my first quote of this post. Robert Tew says “Sometimes walking away has nothing to do with weakness, and everything to do with strength. We walk away not because we want others to realize out worth and value, but because we finally realize our own.” It is for our own sake we have to walk away from someone. Sometimes they bring you down and a lot of the time you do not notice until you walk away and say goodbye.
A lot of the time they do not notice you until you are gone. Sometimes they do not notice at all and that is when you know for sure that saying goodbye was a good decision. Yes, I have said that goodbyes are a lot of the time downright painful but there is nothing more painful than someone who does not want to stay. That is another reason why people say goodbye and that, my friends, takes a whole lot of strength. That leads me to another quote. “It’s painful to say goodbye to someone you don’t want to let go… but more painful to ask someone to stay when you know they want to leave.” In other words it is hard to let go of someone who you love and never want to let go of, but it is even more painful saying goodbye to them when they do not want to stay. That is the hardest pill to swallow.
Saying goodbye is bittersweet. You know it is something that needs to get done though. Instead of thinking that goodbyes are bad, in hindsight they are a good thing because they open you up to other possibilities. They open you up to friendships and relationships that are better for you. People think of goodbyes as sad. That leads me to my next quote by Ernie Harwell who says “It’s time to say goodbye, but I think goodbyes are sad and I’d much rather say hello. Hello to a new adventure.” In other words do not think of goodbye as something sad. I think of it as a way to say hello. I know that for this year in particular I have said goodbye a lot and hello a lot. That is why I am leaving this year with this final blog post. It is all about saying goodbye and saying hello. I wish you all a happy new year! Here is my final poem of 2023. Cheers!
Saying Goodbye
How can I say goodbye to the guy who
Had my heart in the palm of his hand?
I wanted to follow him into the dark, but
I had to protect my happiness and light.
He was one of the few people who knew
Me inside and out. He always planned
Out our life like constellations, but I shut
Him out even when light faded to night
And I wanted to remember all the good
Memories. He is not my future and is not
The one who has my soul anymore. I tried
To forget him like a song on repeat. How
Can I forget someone who understood
My pain? I had to walk away with a knot
In my stomach. Although the tears dried
I could not forget how he broke his vow
To never break the sacred home we built.
That is why our history had to be erased.
There never goes a day when I stopped
Loving him, but I realized that was when
I lost myself. I had to let everything wilt
And die away like a flower. I misplaced
The hope with the love that dropped
And shattered like my heart. Other men
Could not replace him, but I had to move
On even when it hurts to say goodbye.
I had to move on even with the pain in
My chest and tears in my eyes. I know
In my head and heart I had to remove
Him from my life with no fear of shying
Away from the truth that I have been
Better without him. Now I have a glow.