Farewell and see ya soon!

A gentle rustling came from the trees in our back yard. It could have been the wind or two squirrels playing at the base of the tree. I sat down on a chair on our deck and closed my eyes. A few hours early there was a general rumbling in our house. Two of our three kids were home for the weekend.

Few things were in their regular spots. An overnight bag sat in a corner. Keys I didn’t recognize sat on a coffee table. Our normally organized house was a chaotic mess. The night before our television blared most of the night as they played a game on PlayStation and chatted about things going on in their lives.

And then Sunday evening, the house was quieter than a winter forest. The McMurdo Dry Valleys are a row of valleys in Antarctica and are considered one of the quietest places in the world. The air in the valley ranges between -14.8°F (-26°C) in August to 26.6°F (-3°C) in January.

We could have competed with McMurdo. It was that quiet.

The only sound in our house came from my wife and I tapping away on our laptop keyboards. We both caught up on work text and emails. I would look up every once in a while at the TV and the Major League Baseball playoff game playing on mute in the background. (Go Philadelphia Phillies, beat those New York Mets.)

Heck, I read out loud an important email I had to write and didn’t even realize I was talking. I thought I was just reading it in my head. We were both in our own little words. My wife or I would mention something one of the kids said or did and how we missed them. And then it would get quiet again. At one point, our dog Nittany stretched out, upside down, and tried to scratch a particularly annoying itch. We both looked up and laughed and went right back to what we were doing.

Yes, goodbyes are hard. Really hard.

I’m not very good at them. Oh, I know I’ll see our daughter in a week or two. I know the get-togethers will be all the more special in the future, but that doesn’t make the goodbyes any easier.

When my wife was pregnant years ago, we were warned that parenting would be hard. I thought other parents were talking about late night feedings. Heck, I thought they were talking about high school dates and kids getting home past eleven. I never expected that they meant saying goodbye.

Oh, see ya soon guys. Can’t wait until the next time. We miss you.

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened” —Dr. Seuss

“Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes; I’m afraid it’s time for goodbye again.” —Billy Joel

“The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.” —Charles Dickens

“You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing.” —E.B. White

“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” —A.A. Milne