Growing up.....

OK. So I'm a big baby. When people leave me.....I cry. Moving away for a few months, or years. Moving on after they leave this earth. It's a severing of a relationship for a time...... or forever.

I really should be used to folks leaving by now. Really. And I know I've said this before, probably more than once. But you build this relationship, sometimes for a lifetime. You nurture it. You encourage it. You give it all you possibly can give. Sometimes you even fail at it. But it's all a part of that relationship....the good, the bad, and the ugly that makes me who I am and who they are.

Then, all of a sudden....WHAM!!! That thunderbolt of loss hits you and knocks you "ass over tea kettle", as the saying goes. People get up and leave.

Friends of ours left P.A. a few days ago. For great reasons, but they are no longer close enough to give hugs to and to speak with face-to-face. Last year our pastor and family left. Over a year ago, a good friend of mine moved from P.A. to live at a nearby lake. These folks were a part of me but now they are gone......well, not G O N E.....but you know what I mean.

Our daughter and her family moved from P.A. too, a few years ago. It was such a feeling of loss to me. And son moved to Winnipeg a few years back. Yuk!! We managed to see one another a few times a year, so I suppose that's better than some folks experience.

Today was saying good bye to our son....for many months. India is just too far to pack up the old jalopy and go visit for a weekend. So the last few days were spent talking and just being in each other's presence. It was a time for some things to be said, words of love and forgiveness and encouragement. A time to hear his heart and see his life in action. I like what I see. I like seeing the kind of man he has become and how his thinking is challenging me in my thinking too. I like his gentleness and goodness. I like his courage and his ability to see good coming out of the difficult circumstances of his life.

Of course, I could say that about our daughter too. She has resilience and determination. She's straight forward and to the point. She knows no boundaries in her fierce love for those she cares for.

God has blessed us with good children. I (we) are so thankful.

But tonight, I say good bye to Matt with bitter sweet tears. Tears of love for my son whom I will miss and tears of love for how God is taking him into unknown waters to do the work He has ahead for him to do.........on the other side of the earth, no less.

Good byes, as I have experienced, are mostly always for the good of those moving on to new experiences in life. It makes me happy.

It's just this interim time of temporary grief........

Some day I may grow up...