It's So Hard To Say Goodbye
It’s so hard to leave something behind that made you happy. It’s so hard to close a chapter. It can be so painful to know you have to say goodbye forever. It can hurt so much to part from something you want but know you shouldn’t keep.
Sometimes you just have to turn the page and end a chapter. I know that all too well. You have to change your job, lose a friend, the house is too small for so many people. It’s hard, sometimes really hard, but it’s part of life. We close one thing, say goodbye, and then open up another and say hello to all the new things.
You can add chapters to your life, but you need blank pages to keep on writing. That same old chapter needs an ending, it needs to be closed, but it will still be there. Traces of it will continue into the next page. It will all make sense once you know why you’re closing it. It will all make sense when you let it.
It’s not easy to say goodbye. But it is good to know that once you’ve overcome the pain, you’ll be ready for what’s to come. Sometimes the pain of losing something is healthier than the pain of going on with that extra burden on your shoulders.
The emptiness after you say goodbye
It’s not easy to explain, but everyone probably understands because we’ve all experienced it in one way or another. There are goodbyes that leave behind an emptiness that will be so hard to fill. Maybe you’ll never fill it again. It’s so hard to face the unknown, leave your comfort zone, and end something because it’s so hard to realize you have to start another.
It’s true there’s an emptiness, because the pain of loss is real pain, and covering it will only make it stronger later on. You have to learn to say goodbye, to handle that emptiness, and know when you have to close something. It might hurt right now, but it will stop hurting tomorrow.
You usually won’t see the magic of saying goodbye right then. You’ll see it in everything that comes afterwards. Believe me, a whole world of possibilities will open up to you. So much is waiting for you once you clean your wounds. The magic of saying goodbye is that it usually means saying hello to something else.
If you learn to deal with that emptiness, if you don’t make it bigger than it needs to be, if you give it the space it needs… If you let yourself cry when you need to, and give yourself time to heal, then you’ll be ready for what comes. It’s so hard to say goodbye, but once you do you’ll heal and learn to take care of yourself. Learning to say goodbye is learning to grow.
You have to say goodbye to move forward
You have to say goodbye to keep on moving; you have to end a chapter to start a new one. It may be time to throw yourself into something new. The world doesn’t usually stop, and you’re part of the world.
Fear, your faithful companion on the journey of life, will make you cling to what you know because you’re afraid of what you don’t know. But you have the strength to beat fear.
If you look back you’ll see how much your life changes. Not even you, with all the knowledge you have now, could have predicted exactly where you’d be right now. You’ve gotten to where you are now because of your decisions. And among your decisions was your decision to say goodbye.
It’s time to learn how. It’s hard to imagine the new things, the hello that comes after a goodbye. It’s not easy, but it will definitely mean something good. It’s so hard to say goodbye, but remember the magic in the new.
“They said goodbye, and in their farewell there was also a welcome.”
-Mario Benedetti-
