keeping perspective | 365daysofmarriage

I’ve shared my full story of our near-death experience before, so if you haven’t read it, check it out here. But today I wanted to talk about the lessons I learned through it, since it, and how it still impacts my life.

For the last 20 years of my life, I have been met with much young death. The ages ranged from about 18-30ish. I’ve attended a lot of funerals. The shortness of life has been within my radar for my entire adult life. Dating Bret also kept it in my view. Honestly, I don’t know if I could have handled having this person I loved deployed to a literal war zone without these experiences.

So reflecting on how close we both came to death that day on the river, I think these things.

– I am never ever ever ever promised tomorrow or even the next second, so I better enjoy the time I have.

– The little things that bother me and stress me out on a day to day basis are so small compared to the scope of my life.

– I let go of the things I need to let go of and hold onto the things I need to hold on to.

– I am much more honest about the things I need and the things I don’t need.

– If I want to wear a Batman shirt with a cape, I do it.

– Even if I’ve made countless mistakes, I can make a difference by sharing those mistakes.

– I live without regrets. While in a lot of ways, I could point to a number of things in my life that I regret. I could say, wow, this situation is NOT what I wanted to happen, I would change THAT for sure. But I’ve learned that everything that has happened in my life has brought me to the person that I am today. And honestly, I really like that person, and I also can’t wait to see who that person is down the road….however many miles I have left on it.