Sometimes, we don’t have the chance to say goodbye to our loved ones. I often think that’s the worse thing ever.

But a long painful goodbye can be even more heart-wrenching, soul-destroying. I had a sick dog when I was a child, that I refused to have put down, but he died in the end anyway, of a painful death. I had loved him too much, but how he died was more awful than the actual death. I kept my distance from dogs after Tuba (he looked like a tuba and sounded like one) for over 30+ years. I still can’t bring myself to talk about him.

When the time has come for something good and beautiful to end, we must find the courage, I think, to let go gracefully. Because nothing in life is truly ours and nothing is permanent. We are but a sum of our emotions and experiences.

And if you truly grieve about someone or something – rather than the knee-jerk shock reaction about the ending – then know that you have been a part of something wonderful.

In the words of Pema Chodron:

the truth is that things

don’t really get solved.

they come together

and fall apart.

they come together again

and fall apart again.

it’s just like that. 

the healing comes from

letting there be room for

all this to happen:

room for grief,

for relief,

for misery,

for joy.

I sit and think still of the meaningful and precious things I have lost…and often smile at the memory when the pain has dulled. Yes, only then you know you have truly loved and were loved in return.

“How lucky we are to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard”. — Winnie the Pooh

“Leave courageously because real love remains.”