The Strangest Good Bye

Ganpati Bappa Morya.

We say it every year. And yet, every year, we mean it differently.

Because Ganesh Chaturthi is the only celebration where the goodbye is built into the welcome. From day one, you know he's leaving.

And somehow, that doesn't make the days smaller.

It makes them bigger.

The flowers are fresher. The modaks taste better. The evenings are louder. The laughter is easier.

Because everyone in the room knows this is it. This is the time.

So we show up for it.

Fully. And then the visarjan comes.

And there are tears, and there is joy and there is dhol, and all of it makes complete sense together.

We let him go with the same love we welcomed him with.

No resistance. No bargaining for one more day.

Just, Ganpati Bappa Morya. Pudhchya Varshi Lavkar Ya.

I think about how gracefully we do this.

And then I think about everything else in my life I haven't been able to let go of.

The plan that didn't work out, still sitting in the back of my head.

The version of things I wanted, that I never fully said goodbye to.

How strange it is.

That the one goodbye we actually practice with our whole chest, every single year, is the one we chose.

Maybe that's the whole thing.

Maybe goodbye only feels okay when you were fully there for the hello.

Love,

Dhruv.