The young couple, once they realized they always picked fights with one another before a period of separation, did their best not to engage in that goodbye ritual anymore.
But they also knew later that when the kids started to pick fights before leaving for college, when tensions rose around transitions inside and outside the family that “It’s that goodbye thing again.” And they’d move to address what they were feeling in more intentional ways.
An end is the beginning of something else. Saying goodbye is part of life, and some goodbyes are more challenging than others. But the intentional marking of the end of something—and the beginning of another thing—can be a real source of healing and hope for everyone.
This excerpt is from “Faith Reflections: Rituals for saying (and meaning) goodbye ” by Anne Edison-Albright on Cafe.
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