A Month of Goodbyes

I went to a Diocesan meeting of Parish Administrators of Religious Education yesterday. It was the last one I will have to go to in my present position, and perhaps the last one I will ever attend. In six years these people have become my friends, mentors, spiritual advisors, cohorts, and playmates. Suffice it to say I was on an emotional rollercoaster the entire day.

And this is just the beginning. From here on out each week of this month there will be another type of goodbye that I will have to say to someone, on some level. Even though I am not moving, I will be leaving my job, so I won't be seeing the people in the parish where I work nearly as often or ever again. Some of them have become very close friends.

God put me in this place, with these people, during this last six years for a purpose, and in His infinite wisdom that purpose is finished. It is not mine to question His timing, but to surrender to His wisdom and take what I have learned here and move to wherever He chooses to send me next.

I realized yesterday how hard it will be to say goodbye to all of these people. But then it reminded me of something I had read, about relationships. We shouldn't hold too tightly to all our relationships because they are not all meant to be lasting.

I searched for it on the web, and found it here . In time I may know which of the people I met in this six years were meant to be my companions on my journey for longer than a season, and those I won't have to say goodbye to, because they will find me again, through email or the telephone, or I will want to keep in touch with them.

God's plans are perfect, we just have to learn to trust in them.

Pax