Thursday's Children Blog Hop: Pangs Of Absence

"If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden." -attributed to Claudia Ghandi

Have you ever said a goodbye that didn't feel right?

I had another post planned for this week, but this subject has weighed heavily on my mind since, well, this morning. When someone I thought I'd said goodbye to for good suddenly popped up again in my life.

I won't bore you with the gory details, but suffice it to say, when I was younger, I went through a rough patch. It resulted in a cleansing; there were people I needed to remove from my life, so I did.

Unfortunately, it also meant having to say goodbye to a few people I'd rather have kept around.

It's never sat well with me, especially since -being young and tactless- I handled the whole thing with about as much grace as a falling elephant. I burned bridges, I hurt feelings, I made a mess.

Then I rebuilt, and learned to live with the bad taste in my mouth.

I'm at a better place in my life now, but I still have regrets. The kind that linger. That show up in your dreams just when you think you've finally put them behind you.  A chance meeting today got me thinking: maybe it's time to make amends.

I was thinking about it, and it suddenly struck me. Much of my writing has to do with moving on. Moving on from past hurts, from people who've wronged you, from grudges once held.

Maybe it's time for me to stop just writing about it, and start doing it.