Watched six squirrels eating and scampering around under the fighting finches’ feeder while I ate breakfast in the porch swing. A male cardinal lit on the ground between them and just jumped over every squirrel like they were playing leapfrog. Wish I could have filmed it. The flowers look gloomy. Their blooms are heavy and weighted down with rain. The sun is peeking out. The flowers will lift their heads when the sun warms their blossoms. The squirrels are now drinking from the birdbath. Wonder if that is unusual.

Well, looks like Grandpaw didn’t check into the Cage Hotel after all. Both my nephew and oldest brother said the raccoon I caught wasn’t big enough to be the one I photographed so the Cage Hotel is back open for guests.

It’s dusk and the sun is setting so beautifully, filtering through the magnolia trees. Soft breeze chiming one wind chime pipe, playing the same note over and over. The sky is so pretty. When I look towards the back of the house I see blue sky filled with mackerel scales clouds. Looking toward the sunset I see blue skies and God’s clouds. Grayish white clouds he drew when he raked his white pastel over the sky’s blue canvas. I love pretending the sky is God’s canvas. Hope he paints some swimming sunshine tomorrow.

The yard symphony is winding down, the last movement playing out with a train’s lonesome whistle as it rumbles over the tracks. I’m listening to Kenny Rogers’ song, Goodbye, such a beautiful tribute written by Lionel Richie. Wish I could memorize the lyrics. Kenny sings it with such emotion. Makes me cry every time I hear it. “Wanted you for life, you and me in the wind. I never thought there’d come a time that I wanted the story to end. It’s hard to understand but I guess I’ll have to try. It’s not easy to say goodbye.”

We say goodbye so many times in our lives. Some goodbyes are complicated, some are heartbreaking, some are exciting. It’s hard, sometimes to find the right words to say goodbye. Sometimes just a hug and a wave says goodbye. There are goodbyes from painful breakups and goodbyes from tragic loses. The original word goodbye goes back to the 1570s. The word was godbwye, a contraction of the farewell phrase “God be with ye!”

Some goodbyes I think of often. I remember the afternoon I said goodbye to my parents in the dorm parking lot at Wesleyan College my freshman year. They were excited to be leaving me at Mama’s alma mater. They had dated throughout my mother’s college years and had relived lots of their dating memories helping me get acclimated to Macon. Daddy waved as they drove away. I could see the tears welling up in his eyes. I was so happy with my goodbyes and they were sad with their goodbyes.

Remember Rhett Butler telling Scarlett goodbye with his, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn!” That is a damn good goodbye!

I remember the night Chief and I left on our honeymoon. We were married here in my family home and had enjoyed a formal dinner after the wedding ceremony with family and friends. We were all sitting on the porch and standing around in the yard talking after dinner and someone said, “Y’all better get on your way, it’s getting late.” That was an exciting goodbye as we left and started on our life’s journey. My brother-in-law hugged my neck and whispered, “Bye, I love you.” Such a sweet man. He died 39 days after Chief and I remembered his heartwarming goodbye from that night.

When I flew to England in college I got to the Macon airport and unexpectedly saw my daddy waiting in the airport. I remembering him jokingly saying, “We came to say goodbye in case we don’t see you again.” He thought that was funny, but it kinda scared me. Mama said he was worried about me flying across the ocean and wanted to see me off on my trip.

Goodbyes can be gut wrenching, too. But unprepared as I was to tell Chief goodbye, I sat by his bedside stroking his large calluses hands as he took his last breath. I gave him the courage to say his last goodbye, too.

“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard,” — A.A. Milne