The 4 (or 5) Goodbyes

In the book, Third Culture Kids (a good resource for families that frequently move cross-culturally) it’s recommended that those preparing to leave pay careful attention to their good-byes:

“Saying good-bye to people, places, pets and possessions is important if we don’t want to have deep regrets later.” (We nominate adding a “food” category for anyone leaving New York...)

Though we can just scratch pets off that list (unless we count the dozens of dogs that live in our building which forbids dogs), there’s enough work to be done with the other three.

Good-bye to you, for now, our Denby wedding china, and faithful plants on the window sill! Good-bye to you, winter wardrobe and all you Crate and Barrel items purchased with a discount from when I worked there for 2 months!

Good-bye Central Park, we will miss running your 6.1 mile loop and paying homage to your Bethesda fountain. Good-bye to you, our favorite neighborhood restaurants! You were always there for us, rain, snow or shine! Good-bye, good-bye, Tiffany stained-class collection at the Met, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Shake Shack and the NY Public Library! We hope this is not the end!

As for the most difficult category--we’re not ready for that quite yet. Good-byes to the colleagues we now have the privilege of calling friends. Good-byes to those who laughed and prayed with us week after week in our living room. Good-byes, good-byes--I hate to complain, but I really hate saying good-bye.

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Please pray for us to be able to say good-bye well.

It would be so easy to get swallowed up by the tidal wave of packing and moving and logistics, that we rush through this very important piece of the process.