Around here we write for five minutes flat on Fridays.
We set a timer, throw caution to the winds and try to remember what it was like to just write without worrying if it’s just right or not.
Want to play Five Minute Friday? It’s easy peasy!
1. Write for 5 minutes flat on the prompt- no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. Meet & encourage someone who linked up before you.
OK, are you ready? Give us your best five minutes on:
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Good-Bye…
::
GO:
Never drag out a good-bye.
Never linger.
Never stop to think when you’ll see each other next.
Stay up late and watch movies together. Eat chocolate. Laugh. Play wild rounds of Uno with the kids and then teach them how to pull pennies out of their ears. Eat triple layer chocolate fudge cake.
Pray.
Sit side by side on the couch and work by the glow of your laptops. Sometimes there’s a hamster wheel playing in the background. Exchange camera memory cards. Inflate the tired mattress for the last night. Don’t talk about when you’ll see each other next.
Hug hard. Cry. Laugh. Cry.
Order one last Starbucks.
Pack those cheesy tourist TShirts you’re sending back with them. Don’t pack the 4 maps of downtown DC. Leave room for the memories.
Say it. Say it out loud all the missing and the filling up again. Say it and let go. Say it and hug good-bye.
Say it and drive away from the curb.
STOP
OK, show me what you’ve got.
Subscribers, you can just click here to come and play along.
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I’m terrible at quick good-byes. I drag the words out and need yet one more hug and while I know it prolonges the sadness the letting go is so hard for me. So thankful you had such a blessed timewith your brother and his new wife. Praying God comforts and closes the gaps in between now and the next reunion. May it not bee too long.
I can’t stand good-byes and will also try to make them quick and as painless as possible.
Okay…I DID YOUR DUMB writing exercise and now I’m crying!!! You went and did it! :’} ??? Cathy
Goodbye’s used to be SO hard being a mil-wife. Not that they are any easier with 12 yrs experience of many many TDY’s and 4 deployments later. But I have just become immuned to the way of life and what is required of my job description of being his spouse. He packs his bags, he puts them in the truck, he says it is time to go. He drives himself to the airport as I sit in the passenger seat and watch the cars go by out the window and nothing is said. There is silence all the way to the airport. Two options are given to us on the sign post above, arrival or departure, we know which one we are to chose. We go to departures, we both get out, he gets his bags out of the truck, there is silence still. One kiss, one hug, one I love you each, that is all that is said and done. He goes his way and I to the truck and drive off. One tear, maybe two, comes to my eye as I look through the people to see one last glance of him as I drive off. Sometimes I see him, sometimes I don’t. No more time for tears, I must focus on what I’m doing, there is traffic to merge thru and responsiblities to manage on my own. Our good-bye time has passed.
OH….I have been there many many times! Thankful for the wonderful time you had! Praying right now that God will fill the homesick places in your heart this morning!
the picture? got me. leaving the kids is so hard. this post? most excellent!
WHOOSH. That was a whole rush of emotion and energy in your post, Lisa, that felt a lot quicker than 5 minutes. You made the feelings verbal. Well done.
I haven’t participated in a long time and today felt like a coming home to writing again. Also had to mention that I got my awesome inRL tee-shirt in the mail and it is really good quality and cute too! Thanks!
Oh yay about the TShirt and yay about hanging out with us at Five Minute Friday!
Morning little girl. You don’t often come back to visit me. I see you, with your fiery red hair and the smattering of freckles across your nose. Eyes squinting out of your little round pink- rimmed glasses. Fingers that are holding on tightly to another set. Black and white fingers intertwined.
Giggles and laughter with moments of unintelligible conversation, a language concocted from French and Songo (a dialect from the Central African Republic) fill the air.
Ear splitting screams suddenly erupt from outside the missionary complex. Static from
a ham radio picks up crackling sounds of voices. Cries, shots, and unearthly silence. G… has turned off the radio. He gathers us to himself and leads us off of the veranda and into the house.
I struggle to leave G… as I hear a familiar voice . Gently G. restrains me and in Songo begins to tell me and Rebekah, his daughter a story.
Footsteps soon are heard outside. But G. tightens his grip and listens. A gentle smile fills his face and then changes to confusion.
Auntie stands covered in red. Her hair and hands marked up and her knees are muddied.
Has she been playing in paints and mud? G. goes to Auntie and helps her sit in a chair.
She’s crying. Why’s Auntie crying?
Black and white hands big and small. Scarred, bloodied, broken bring in the wounded.
Auntie’s not crying any more. Her children: Kip, Camille, Kalla and Kim help her get Uncle George’s body ready.
“He’s home. Really home. You’ll see him some day. It’s not really not a final good-bye.”
Uncle George Cone gave up his life for the people he loved during the sudden and senseless massacre of the Congo Rebellion in the early sixties. My parents mission station was in the line of fire, as the Central African Republic boarders on the Congo.
Praying Lord that my African extended family is still safe and alive. For Rebekah and her
family whose lives are never safe due to the ongoing civil war in the Sudan, C.A.R. , and for the rebels and bandits that roam unchecked with a growing malevolence in their heart towards Christians. Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.
Little girl, I won’t forget. Little girl its going to be all right some day. When the words “good-bye” won’t be in our language .
Adore that sweet photo and hope you had a nice visit with your brother and new sister-in-law. The longer the distance of separation, the harder the goodbye. Have a great weekend Lisa-Jo.
Brilliant advice. (((hugs)))
How do I say goodbye, when I just began again to say hello?
How do I say goodbye, when I haven’t figured out the stupid perfection of how reconciliation works?
And now, suddenly the time comes for figuring out the goodbye. How much time? Does it matter? Where are all my emotions? Or is this what peace feels like? Goodbye seems to be a lot of questions. How will I feel when you are gone? Will I regret the lost years? Or will God keep me in peace about my past decisions? I grieve for what could have been. Slightly. But mostly thankful for God’s persistence. For His constant nudges toward forgiveness. This goodbye could not, would not happen without the gift of God’s forgiveness in my heart for you.
Love what you’ve written. This sounds like where I am at these days, or almost at I should say… With God surprising me by leading me to forgive and reconcile with a newly discovered (yet long) unfaithful husband of just 2 years, and daddy of my 14 mo old baby girl. And though my heart of forgiveness has been extended, no forgienvess has been requested. Thus, i find myself teetering on the edge of a sad good-bye instead. He does not yet want reconsiliation. So the goodbye looms… unless God intervenes, there will surely be one… Filled with all the same mix of emotions that you expeess so well here. Yet God is present and able to carry great burdens, and in that there is both great hope and comfort. Thank you for what you wrote, and I pray blessings upon you in this time, and in all that life brings in the future.
Kristi,
Oh, there is so much pain in this world, isn’t there? We are so fortunate to have a God we can call on, fall on, who will love and bless us through our trials. God has surprised me with forgiveness as well. It is not complete for me either, as forgiveness was also unasked for, and even the need for forgiveness unacknowledged. But it is freeing in our souls to let go of so much. I pray for a softened heart in your husband, and that God will bring about reconciliation. I pray continued blessings for you and your family.
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. ~James 1:12
God bless you, Kristi!
~Wendy
Thank you Wendy for taking the time to reply and encourage me… you are very wise and a great example to me in this time. Your words bring tears to my eyes, but strength to my soul. And the verse brings tears as well… as I read and reread it today. Tears of sorrow for the pain of persevering through the trial, but also tears of joy at the amazing hope and promise that it is. Thank you so much for sharing it with me. I pray God continues to bless you with clarity, strength and peace as you lean on Him through your own time of trial, and that He would lead you, in His tender mercy and loving kindness, into a future filled with more joy and blessing than you ever could have dreamed or imagined. :)
“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” ~ Ephesians 3:20 NLT
God bless you Wendy!
~ Kristi
love it. LOVE it. the way you just have me mesmerized as if im reading a novel–in five minutes? love reading you, Lisa-Jo. you make me want to play UNO wild and run around the house like an insane person–because thats how i feel most days anyways. love to you!
I can’t get mine to link today:
http://freshbrewedwriter.blogspot.com/2012/04/5-minutes-on-good-bye.html
See you later . . .
Thank you so much for these wise words!!! I often play along with Five Minute Friday but don’t comment on here..although you inspire me so:). I’m thankful for you!
I hate good-bye, so I never say it. I say, “See you later.” See you soon.” I’ll be back.” or in the words of my sweet 3 year old grandson, “I’ll be right back.” even though he knew they wouldn’t be, right back, that it is. But he knew I needed to hear it.
We were saying good-bye after an all too brief and not often enough visit, when his sister, 4 1/2 years said to me, “Do you know who’s in Heaven Grammy?” Not thinking, I answered , No, Honey, who’s in Heaven? “Annie’s in heaven Grammy! and momma’s sister, Candi is there too!”
The tears I had been holding back at the thought of their leaving, spilled over onto my cheeks. My son’s 27 year old finance had just suddenly died in his arms and my daughter apparently had been talking to her about Annie & her sister Candi (my daughter who died 17 years ago).
Sitting next to me on the swing, My grandson held my arm, looked deep into my eyes and promised, “We’ll be right back. We’ll be right back, Grammy.”
I like that much better than Good-bye.
Yes, it’s one of the reasons I prefer the Afrikaans “tot siens” – which means literally see you later or till I see you again. Much easier on the heart.
It took me a long time but I got here. I look forward to this day every week and it’s given me inspiration into what I truly love to write on my blog. I think these 5 min posts are helping me “find my voice”. If there is such a thing. :) At any rate, they’re fun!
LisaJo, I apologize. I’m not sure how to remove the link to my blog. (#97) The post has been removed. Sorry for any inconvenience. SW
can’t help but comment on this one. goodbyes only get harder. sometimes i think i don’t want to say hello because the goodbye hurts so deeply.
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