Do You Know What Tomorrow Will Bring?

 

Usually the military themed quotes are pretty corny in my opinion like; 

"His boots, my flip flops, perfect pair"

"Don't count the miles, count the I Love You's"

and

"Love is trading your pearls for his dog tags"

But this one, "live like he deploys tomorrow" really hit home for me. It really got me thinking, how would I treat him, or act if he was deploying tomorrow? And it's changed me, and our relationship for the better. 

Riley would also always say jokingly; 

"is this where you wanna be when Jesus comes back?"

Same concept.

So of course the thought of all this gets me thinking on a much bigger spectrum. 

The whole, live like you're dying thing. And how we just never know what might happen tomorrow...It's really the way we need to live our lives. 

Recently Riley was hit with the news that a really close friend of his is battling cancer, and more recently was told they only had 3-9 months to live. 

Not only has it invalidated any issues they had previously but it really gets us thinking about our lives and relationship too. It's given us a whole new perspective on the whole "choose your battles" advice you're given when you get married. Really, those miniscule arguments or fights you have...The times you go to bed angry, or hang up on them...Is it really worth it? What if that person passed away the very next day, how would you feel?

On sort of a smaller scale, I've really been learning to live the same way recently when it comes to just distance...It first started when I decided to stay in North Carolina and be with Riley 3 years ago, and live 3000 miles away from everything I've ever known. Now, we're about ready to move to ITALY, an extra 4000 miles away and a 9 hour time difference.

So any chance I get to be in Oregon, Skype with, see, or talk to family...I really cherish. I really try to utilize the time I have with them because again, you never know if it's suddenly going to be 3 years or 5 years til you see them again. (That's why I jumped at the chance to take a second cross country road trip in 3 weeks back to Oregon) 

You just never know. 

The way things are right at this very moment will not, I guarantee, stay the same. Things change, life happens, unfortunate things develop, news that you're moving 2491648 miles away presents itself, they deploy, people pass away...It's just the way it is. And we need to treat each other as if today is our only day with them. Love each other, be kind and be happy.

Be the reason they are smiling.