Life Down Under

Time to Say Goodbye....

I chose this title for this post because this evening we had a going away party for Ann and Christine (the two girls from the States who have been here for 2 months helping us out with the House of Prayer), and also for Alissa, one of the previous interns who is on her way to do missons work in Columbia with the street kids. Although it's sad to see them go, at least we got to send them off with our love and prayers.

So....back to the title of this post. As soon as I typed it, I immediately thought of that song that Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman sing, "Time to say goodbye" (Yes, one of my hidden loves is Italian opera....). It's a very moving song - the vocals and music on it are just incredible, and the last several months it has become one of my favorites to listen to in the car as I drive around town. Tonight for the first time, I tracked down the lyrics translated into English, and it's no wonder something in my heart connected with this song. This is one of the translations of the chorus I found online:

Time to say goodbye -- I'll go with you
to countries I never
saw and shared with you,
now, yes, I shall experience them.
I'll go with you
on ships across seas
which, I know
no, no exist no longer...

How bizzairre is that? Here I was totally engaging with this song these last few months, feeling so strongly it was the song I was singing in my heart as I left America......Only to now for the first time to read the lyrics in English. Of course, I wasn't saying goodbye to Aaron....(so I'm probably taking the lyrics slightly out of context).....but in leaving my friends and family, my life there that was comfortable and that I loved, I was saying goodbye to my country and all I ever knew....it seems like quite an appropriate song for the last six months. No wonder I liked it. And I think that I like it even more now that I know what they're actually saying!