When Goodbye Becomes a Teacher
Grief has a way of shifting shape. It doesn't always arrive with loud cries or breaking hearts. Sometimes, it whispers. It’s in the ache that surfaces when an old photo resurfaces or the sound of a familiar voice plays from a long-saved message. It hums quietly in the background of life, asking for presence, not avoidance.
We learn to walk with it. To stand a little taller even when it feels like the weight inside might fold us in two. And still, the questions linger:
Is there ever really rest in a goodbye? Is there ever truly resolve in a loss so deep?
Today, the waters offered a soft place to ask those questions again. Low tide, few people. A quiet invitation to feel, to listen inward, to be held. Not just by the sea - but by something greater. Something loving. Something that understands both the beauty and the ache of remembering.
On June 8th, 2021, a soul chose to move on. A father. A provider. A presence layered with complexity. His body grew tired, but his spirit - his essence - remains. While the mind may honor the timing, the heart does not always find it easy.
Those final days brought up so much: helplessness, fear, the old echoes of childhood wounds, and the ache of not being able to do more. Not being able to fix, to heal, to change the ending. But maybe that wasn't the invitation. Maybe the offering wasn’t about doing - but allowing. Maybe the soul knew that the final breath wasn’t meant to be witnessed. That some goodbyes are given in protection, not absence.
And from that place beyond the veil, the connection continues. The tone of a familiar laugh. The glimmer of his character. The unexpected feeling of being supported, even now. Some bonds don’t end - they evolve.
Spirit often reminds us: we aren’t meant to forget. Relationships - especially the complicated ones - carry purpose. Not always for comfort, but often for growth. For courage. For claiming our own voice, our own path. Sometimes they exist to teach us what love truly is… by showing us what it was not.
For those who have lost, who still long for what never was, who carry the ache of unmet needs from parents or loved ones - this is for you. Many walk with the unspoken wish: See me. Value me. Love me unconditionally. But when that wish goes unanswered, we are asked to find that love within ourselves. And that’s where transformation begins.
Unprocessed pain doesn’t just disappear. It weaves itself into everyday life - through patterns, struggles, and stories we repeat. But when grief is met with presence, when pain is honored rather than buried, healing can flow.
The waters today reminded of that. They didn’t demand anything. They simply held space. They whispered: Keep going, but softer now. You’re not alone.
And from that unseen place, a father still teaches - not with words, but through presence, through continued love. Through the silent agreement between souls that says, We are still learning from one another.
So… is there rest in goodbye? Is there resolution?
Yes.
Not in the way the world often expects. But in the quiet understandings that rise through self-love. In the deep appreciation for our journeys - messy, beautiful, and whole. In realizing that even the hardest relationships can become sacred teachers when viewed through the lens of spirit.
Today is a day of remembrance. A day of honoring the one called “Pops.”
And a day of honoring the self - still here, still growing, still listening.
May we all remember: goodbye doesn't mean gone.
Love continues.
And healing is always available, even in the spaces between the waves.
With love,
Susan