# Saying Goodbye

Source: https://zenchick.com/saying-goodbye/
Published: 2012-03-26
Author: Gay Barefield

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**Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending.  ~Lazurus Long**

**Don’t cry because it’s over.  Smile because it happened.  ~Theodor Seuss Geisel**

It’s almost over, done and finished. In the art of ending and our continued theme of [“letting go”](http://www.zenchick.com/2012/03/moving-forward-while-looking-back/)I’m finishing up a long standing volunteer board position. How does it feel? Good, sad and it’s time.

**Good** in that I have enjoyed my time contributing to the cause.

**Sad** because it will be different, looking in instead of looking out and having that void temporarily in my life.

Knowing **it’s** **time** is everything in my opinion, not wearing out your welcome or your energy until you totally dislike what you are doing.

Even though I’m talking about a volunteer position, this can be true of anything or anyone in your life that you need to let go. **Timing is everything. **

One of the comments that I love from the last post on [spring cleaning](http://www.zenchick.com/2012/03/spring-cleaning-your-stuff/) is giving up stuff so that “someone else can love your stuff now.” It’s so much easier to release and let go if we feel that someone else will carry on. While this is true for stuff and jobs, it’s not true for people. We don’t think that anyone else can carry on as well or fill that spot in someone’s life the way we do. So we hang on and on thinking we are doing the right thing.

Just like volunteer jobs and things we need to let go of, people need that too. It’s only normal as we move through the years of our lives to change and flow. With that change, people, jobs and the stuff in our lives change too. That favorite sweater that we loved for so long no longer holds that special place in our heart or closet that it once did. It is true too of people, they flow in holding that special place in our lives and when it’s time for them to move on we need to let them flow out.

Honor your sense of **timing**, your innate ability to know when the letting go is right. Let someone else love the sweater, fill the board position and take your spot in another’s life. You will find that when you do all of these things with ease and grace it’s not stressful, it’s enlightening. ***“Smile because it** **happened”*** and your life will be **full** from the experience.

Today see what you need to release in your life and make an art of the **ending**.

As always your comments are welcomed and I love the insights that all of you provide. Learning from each other is how we keep “moving forward ” in our lives.

 

 

photo credit: [Dinohyus](http://www.flickr.com/photos/dinohyus/6315754129/) via [photopin](http://photopin.com) [cc](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/)