For some strange reason when I think of goodbyes, especially to the old year, I think of The Sound of Music, when the family says goodbye in that song that sticks in our minds, sometimes not even welcome.
Yet it is poignant, that song, full of the grief of leaving something loved, that will not be re-visited. In part, it says "So long, farewell/Auf Wiedersehen, goodnight/I hate to go and leave this pretty sight,” and later "I leave and heave/A sigh and say goodbye".
Goodbye 2011; it's been a year of surprises, wonderful things, and those not so much. I will remember.
And then, I love Rainer Maria Rilke's thoughts:
"And now let us welcome the New Year full of things that have never been."
Happy New Year Everyone!
