Life is Precious

Chris here.

Life is precious. Enjoying your life is even more precious. I don't know how many times one needs to be reminded of that before it really sinks in. For me, I'm not sure if it was the passing of my father 9 years ago, or one of my really good friends almost 7 years ago, or my Grandma passing a few years back, or the passing of our pets, all of whom we had for over 15 years. Perhaps I realized how precious the time you have to enjoy life is while watching my family and friends get divorced, fall into depressions or have other bad things happen. Today I received an e-mail from my mother that my grandpa, who will be 97 this month, had a sudden change in his personality over the past few days. He's been one of the people in my life who I really look up to, and to get a reminder of his age has really thrown me for a loop.

I can actually point to the time in my life that was my pivot point - the point at which I realized I needed to do something more than spend my time behind a desk. It was about 5 days after I had to call my friend's wife and tell her that her husband had passed away. I'll never get the screams and cries out of my head. While we're no longer close, I ask those around her how she's doing, and am glad to hear that she's been able to move on. For me, my way of moving on was to do the tough thing and change my life and the way I approach every day. And so I sit, on our boat, over a thousand miles from our friends and family, but surrounded by those who mean everything to me, telling you - enjoy your life. Don't let it pass you by. We only have a limited time to take advantage of being here, and you should use the time to its fullest.