Saying Goodbye...

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Sometimes the oddest things will bring me into a contemplative melancholy. This happened to me this morning. My children will be waking up soon. We just had the first "wake up" and then back to sleep, but that never lasts long. So, while I was waiting for my son to get out of bed and start the day, I decided to flip through the TV channels. I came across a soap opera that I used to watch. "The Guiding Light". I recently participated in a discussion about the fact that this show is coming to an end. It got me thinking. This show has been on as long as I can remember. It's just something that I assumed would go on forever. Although I haven't watched it in several years, I always knew it was "there" if I wanted it. I am thinking that I'm just going to have to start watching it til it's done. Eventually, it won't be an option anymore. This little insignificant show has stirred up some pretty significant things for me. It was a tie, of sorts, to my mother and to my Grandmother. My earliers memories of this show, was me as a child, seeing my Grandmother taking a break from her household chores to watch her soaps. She'd smoke her cigaret and call the most recent "bad guy" a sen-of-a-beech! (she came from cuba and had an accent). It was a daily ritual and the memory of it brings me a bit of comfort and a bit of longing for the old days. I've had to say a few Goodbyes, over the past few years. The most significant, being my mothers death last year. Of course, that had a huge impact on my life. After that, basically, I lost my dad, as I once knew him. He's still alive and I visit with him regularly, but after the loss of my mother, he's not the same man. And of course, I am now acutely aware that he won't be around forever either. On a less intense note, but still somewhat significant was the tearing down of a local landmark. I'm a native "Miamian". The "Orange Bowl" is just another thing that I assumed would just "always be there". Well, now it's gone. The city decided that it was time to make room for "progress" and such. I understand the idea that it had outlived it's "usefulness". Land here quite precious. We don't have much left. My son saw a CD in our local grocery store. It was a tribute to the Orange Bowl. I was touched that it was so important to him, to purchase it. He used his OWN money! For him that's a big thing. He's only thirteen, so he didn't visit the Orange Bowl many times, but apparently those few times had a big impact on him. So, my question to you... Are there things in your life, that you assumed would just "always be there" and then you found that they were no longer there? It could be a friend you took for granted, a landmark that was just always there, or anything else that had some meaning for you.