Connecting Routes: Saying Goodbye
CANADA - GHANA - TUVALU
Here’s to “Connecting Routes” ~ a space to spotlight a common theme in my travels that offers snapshots from one place to another, like the tantalizing tease of a tasting menu or a shortlist of your next dream vacation!
Top Three Spaces For Saying Goodbye
Is it December already?! Perhaps a routine working day can snail away, but those weeks that bleed into quarters and decades, somehow, sand in that hour glass surreptitiously slips away … till one day, we find ourselves needing to say goodbye. Be it a countdown that’s concluded, the awaited arrival after a hiatus or outdated practices that require reworking, some farewells are friendly and favoured. Others such as sudden loss, dashed dreams, opportunities that are dead-ended or worth dwindled, these can be (undesirably) disruptive and definitely defining.
As shorter days and less rays blanket the Northern Hemisphere, winter itself signals a sayonara that reminds us of impermanence. Why then do we wander around like our lives are limitless? I try to take stock and think intentionally about how I can optimize my time, toil and thought before I too must bid adieu. Regardless of which season of our lives we’re living in, goodbyes will be inevitable and sometimes even universal. After all, saying adios to 2024 can be a huge production (and party)!
Frankly, it is the traveler that is most versed in farewells. For it is both a prerequisite and a given that goodbyes are inherent in one’s itinerary. Undoubtedly, the present tense action of journeying to a land implies the leaving of another, the beginning of an escapade now requires some type of end elsewhere and the contacts that created an exotic experience today are destined to eventually part ways, at least physically. As the world seems to look ahead to the holiday season, I wonder if the rearview mirror will afford us a deeper appreciation of the spaces, places, people, milestones and moments that, regardless of the details, we’ve waved goodbye to - and how that too, has had a hand in waving us into the subsequent scene in our lives.
Canada: Hot chocolate, hoodies and having time with loved ones is a Hallmark seal of the holiday season. As we wind down with the end of another year, maybe our past can inform the present and help us plan a brighter beginning. While fear and excitement may both be drivers, as we steer into the new year, perhaps this is the (imperfectly perfect) point to move from photocopy to uncertainty.
Ghana: There are certain things that have to just have to go. While blockbuster, non-negotiable atrocities such as the African slave trade likely garners unanimous support, what about the ruts and roadblocks in and around us that are relinquishable? Closure can catalyze resiliency. Woven within this are invitations for inspired generosity, loyal connections and bosom filling joy.
Tuvalu: Sometimes, it all begins when we leave our lagoon. Yes, that was also the point at which I (unknowingly) snorkeled next to a shark! But since then, many more sharks and stings have come my way and with each foray after this gateway, I’m a bit more comfortable with the beasts, outside and within. In the South Pacific, sending someone off felt like a ceremony of honouring and happiness. So, handmade crown on my head and with a candy necklace, I left like royalty from here - clearly, the small stuff is the big stuff.
May we live big, bold and beautiful through each hello and goodbye, before the curtain falls,