I feel like snoopy right now...

..."Why can't we get all the people together in the world that we really like and then just stay together? I guess that wouldn't work. Someone would leave. Someone always leaves. Then we would have to say good-bye. I hate good-byes. I know what I need. I need more hellos.” - Snoopy

It's so true. Someone would always leave...and a lot of the time it feels like I'm the one who is leaving! I am the one always saying goodbye. I hate times that are full of goodbyes. I hate that my heart is torn across the world. In the past week and a half, I've had to say goodbye to 2 brothers, 2 brother-in-law, 2 sister, 2 sisters-in-law, 7 neices, 2 nephews, and 3 Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and countless friends. Goodbyes are so hard. They're always so hard. It's hard even in the lead up to a goodbye. It's hard to be at your siblings house that one last time before you have to say goodbye and leave. It's hard that you missing giving your brother that one last hug to say goodbye. It's hard to have to get back on the road quickly for the last 6 hour drive of the day and to have a rushed goodbye with your Grandparents and siblings. It's hard realising that all your neices and nephews are going to grow up more before the next time you see them. It's hard when you're hanging out with your cousins and Aunts and Uncles having so much fun playing games, only to come to the end of the night and realise it's the last night you'll spend with them, and that tomorrow you'll have to say goodbye. It's hard to say goodbye to people not knowing when the next time will be that you see them again.

And there are times that I think, I wish the world was smaller, I wish we lived back in the 1800's where people grew up and lived in the same place all their life. But then I remember that back then people also left and never saw their family again. And there are times that I wish goodbyes were not such a present reality in my life.

And those things, the longing to all be together, the longing to never have to say goodbye, the longing for no more tears, are all things that also keep present in my mind and heart a longing for Heaven, where for all of eternity all Christians will be together.

And, really, the more I think about it, the more I really ponder it, the more I realise that Jono Blakstons words are so true, 'the goodbye was worth the hello' And I think about the Blackwood Bash, where we were all together for a couple of days, and I remember things like late night D&M's with my siblings when we'd chat into the night. And the times when my neices and nephews would see me walk into the room and come running up to give me a hug. And I think about things like 4wheeling and boating and eating and playing games together with my Aunts, Uncles, Grandma, and Cousins, and I do know that the goodbye, as sad as it is, as hard as it is to say, as much as I don't like to say that word, as much as I want to get everybody in the world that I love together, the goodbye really was worth the many, many hello's that I've had with my siblings, my niblings, my Couns, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, and friends.