We had a goodbye luncheon for our pastors today. In just under two weeks, they're off to start their new ministry in Romania. I'm not big on goodbyes. They're always so schmaltzy. I've never been part of a big goodbye production that acknowledges my cold hard truth: I don't waste my time missing people once they're gone. Either you're so important to me that we're going to keep close in touch and I won't have to miss you (increasingly easy in the digital age!), or we weren't that close and we're not going to stay in touch, so why pretend? I think it was all the moving around as a military brat that made me such a pragmatist. The idea of change is scary, but once a decision has been made or an edict has been rendered, I find there is nothing to do but move forward. Sometimes life is so perfect that I worry and fret- what will happen when this is over and everything changes? I've learned through experience that the change itself is never as scary as I think it'll be. People go but they're never gone.