Good good-byes

Tonight I said good-bye to my friends Abby and Ryan, who will be moving pretty far away for the foreseeable future (the foreseeable future being two years). I thought I was prepped for this, but on my drive home the good-bye sadness hit me. 

I'm glad that good-bye doesn't feel natural, because it isn't. We weren't made for separation; in fact, that's the opposite of what we were made to experience. 

I'm glad that this good-bye is bittersweet, and that the sweetness comes from parting on good terms, with no regrets and nothing standing between us.

Most of all, I'm glad that all good-byes between these friends and I are only temporary, no matter what happens.

I'm sad, too. But it's a sadness with joy undergirding it.