saying goodbye

There are certain people that come into our lives and we're never the same again. 

They become part of our identities, attached by invisible threads to our very souls. 

We may not see them every day, or maybe even every year, but when we do, we pick up right where we left off without skipping a beat. 

It's in the catching up, the fitting together of all the missing pieces of our lives that have gone between, that we suddenly realize the big gap that was left the last time we said good-bye. 

And so we work hard at filling up the gap with as many happy memories as possible, so that when the next good-bye comes, as it always does, since nothing in this world is permanent, perhaps the gap won't seem so big. 

We put on a brave and happy face and tell them, "We'll see you when we see you and not a moment before!" while hoping it will be sooner than later, and wishing there was a way to make the time apart go faster.