We have many times in life when we have to say goodbye. Kids leaving home, friends/relationships moving or deciding to move on, pets going over the pet rainbow bridge when they die. Everything that we say goodbye to leaves footprints in our lives.
This last while has had some emotional times for my family. This week I had to say goodbye to a fur family member. Our little Chinchilla, we did a ritual of cleaning the place he had hung out for 10 or 11 years, that is when we got him. We think he was older than the dog who is 16, that is an old life for a Chinchilla. Having plans to deal with unexpected pet stuff.
Sometimes when we say goodbye we have a flood of emotions. When I had to say goodbye to our little friend, I felt sad, angry, worried and lost. The vet was kind and gentle, I was so grateful.
Sad and angry, I could not help our little fellow’s foot, so much effort was put into helping him. We had been trying for 4 months to heal the foot infection. Medications, foot soaks and bandaging. Goodbye little guy, you left footprints in our hearts.
The poor fellow started to equate us with pain and discomfort and the people that gave him food pellet ammo. Crazy guy would pick up his food with one paw (hand like), take one bite and toss it, sometimes at us!
We also had a family member move out, it is very different to have just us and 2 pets. Sometimes people go and you don’t get to say good luck!
During the pandemic I had a friend move on, just stopped answering my calls. I had a sad time in my head in the beginning of the lock down in my area, so my guess is that my mind’s state was too heavy for them to hold. I was so sad to disconnect from that friend but people need to do what they need to do that takes care of their heart.
My partner had to say goodbye to being at the office, this was hard. Loss of connections, loss of the equipment that made the job easier, and coffee made in a pot. All one had to do was walk to it and pour in a cup with sugar and stuff if you wanted, if they were desperate then pour straight from the pot into the mouth! That was the Monday after a long weekend!
The indigenous people all over have lost family and not been able to say goodbye. In Canada we had a number of unmarked graves of 215 children found, sadly the families were not notified. This made me so sad. Many nations have felt the pain and loss of many elements of their background, religions and cultures.
Many of the goodbyes were not planned so no proper goodbyes could be exchanged. Dealing with unplanned goodbyes leave holes, if it was that Monday after the long weekend the coffee would fall out of the holes. This means we need ways to mend.
Being human has a lots of room to grow, heal and move forward. How do you say goodbye?
This is where it starts 