If you won two free plane tickets, where would you go?

Isn’t it funny how your mind can play tricks on you and how a memory can cause your entire body to react?

How can a song make you cry by transporting you back in time to a specific place and event?

At the time, you might have thought the experience was insignificant.

If I had two free plane tickets, I’d want unlimited ice cream. Sunshine on a quiet deck early in the morning. Laughter and giggles from those around me playing mini golf. Watching the sun set and rise without a care in the world. And the best part, absolutely no connection to the mainland—my little piece of heaven—just floating on the water with those who meant the absolute most to me.

As I look back at the pictures now, they don’t do the time that we spent together justice. My view of those giant smiles and a complete sense of happiness on all their faces is something I will never forget. That is what life is all about. Those moments are what I strived for.

We can’t take any of this worldly stuff with us. We can’t take our money or our favorite pair of shoes, and those won’t help the people that we leave behind in the long term. But the memories that we take the time to make with each other, the moments of undivided attention, and love, those are the things that will last a lifetime.

Funny how when we are in the moment, in the thick of life, we forget to enjoy those around us.

All too often, we take for granted the things right in front of us, things within our reach. We are busy and consumed with the next ‘big’ thing: that new car, that promotion at work, that vacation to escape the mountain of laundry.

Life passes by so quickly.

We must make a conscious effort to slow ourselves down and enjoy the little blessings.

So sign me up for unlimited ice cream. All-you-can-eat buffets. Sunshine, laughter, and that sense that everything is right in the world.

-xoxo