Recently, my husband Justin and I lost our close friend, Travis unexpectedly in a plane crash. He was only 43. When tragedy strikes close to home, it’s natural to go through a variety of emotions. Of course, the first one was shock. It was hard to wrap my mind around the fact that he is really gone and that we won’t see his smile or laugh with him again. Somewhere in the flood of emotions came extreme sadness- both for us and for his sweet wife and for his children.

In my soul searching, I started thinking about what’s really important to me- like my family and friends. I guess a lot of people do that in times like this. My own incredible husband and children would be at the top of the list. I know a lot of people have the realization that “life is too short” when they lose a loved one. I’m no different.

But I’ve had a few other realizations lately, too.  In addition to really examining what matters to me, I have a very clear picture of what doesn’t matter to me. I see, crystal clear, what I don’t want to waste one minute of my life on. Things like arguing about politics, drama about petty things, fighting, negativity, hate, and being concerned with people who don’t have my best interests in mind have no place in my life. I won’t give them a second thought.

Where you invest your love, you invest your life

There are 525,960 minutes in a year. I don’t know how many of them I have left. But I do know this. I want to spend them with people who want to be with me. I want to spend them laughing. I want to travel to as many places across this amazing world, taste as many cuisines, and meet as many people as I possibly can. I want to love and be loved. I want to grow closer to God. I want to find true peace within myself. I want to continue to learn, share, grow, help others, become a better person, and so much more! I have a finite number of minutes left. Why would I exchange one minute of this precious life for anything negative? I won’t. Life doesn’t come with rollover minutes and from now on I will carefully measure how I spend each one.

Happy trails,