Today is a sad day.
Today is a happy day.
Today I said goodbye to some people I love.
Today I’m traveling towards reuniting with people I love.
That “decision-making” process I’ve been alluding to? It’s resulted in the decision – and the execution, as I am in the midst of traveling once again across the United States – to return to Madison, WI. I will be spending more time with my family there, daughters, parents, grandsons, and helping them as best I can.
In some ways that’s an easy decision; they are my kin, and my father and my grandfather before me always held to the standard that family is important. They set the examples that formed the basis of my own paternal style. For a while – a couple of years at least – I thought they didn’t really need me around, and I went off gallivanting around the world doing the work I loved.
Now, they’ve asked for my help. I’m their Dad. Of course I’m going back.
Moved By Love
But what about the work? What about the friends and loved ones I’ve made in Seattle, the relationships formed and the plans made? Make no mistake, while it was an easy decision, it was not an easy execution. Winter is coming, “an’ twere done, twere best done quickly,” before the snows hit the Rockies. My housemates were an immense help in easing my exit, and the surprise support of a couple of friends made it probably the most easy “move out” I’ve ever had.
How could it be easy to say goodbye to that kind of loving support?
The answer, of course, it that it is not easy. I will carry the memory of final words, of last hugs, of all the words and hugs I didn’t get to say before I left. They will ring in my ears and my fingertips and my heart, all through the hundreds of miles across the northern U.S.
And they will stay with me as I take my place in my home in Madison, WI. Their words, their touch, and the deep affection I carry for them all will be there when I walk in the door, when I finally sink a very weary head into the pillow.
I didn’t say goodbye to that love. I took it with me.
You can’t have everything. Where would you put it? – Steven Wright