When I was younger, we would take a vacation every summer. We would typically take one of two road trips: Galveston for a week or 10 states in 10 days. Both hold a barrage of incredible memories.

Live Your Bucket List Life Now

This past week, on our way home from New Orleans for Dad 2.0 Summit, we decided to take a different route home and drive straight to Beaumont before turning north to Dallas. This put us on Hwy 45.

The highway that used to carry us back-and-forth to Galveston when I was a kid. The one where we would sing songs and play games in the back of Dad’s truck with a camper. The same highway where one of the sand crabs we caught on the beach that summer escaped in the back of Mom’s car and everyone was scrambling to escape it’s claws until we could pull over.

The exact incredibly long highway that we, as a family, drove back to Dallas on after leaving Mom at MD Anderson. The highway that carried us away from Houston… crushed by the loss of our Matriarch.

Alas, through all the tears and heartache of the past 6 months, we continue to navigate this life without Mom. I’ve learned a thing or two from her loss and am always searching for ways to be purposeful in my grieving.

One thing I try to do now is LIVE.

There’s no time to waste and the time is always now. So, in that spirit, and because we haven’t taken a family vacation in about 3 years, Colby and I decided to book a getaway for the 8 of us. After years of hoarding airline miles, we redeemed about 200,000 and are taking the kids to Turks & Caicos.

It’s been on my bucket list for years and the kids are still in awe that we’re going. But, it goes back to my mom.

After she passed, we found her Bucket List among her work things. On it, she listed things she wanted to achieve and places she wanted to go. Places we could have easily helped her travel to had she only mentioned them.

I don’t want to regret not taking a trip or missing an opportunity with my family. I don’t want to sit back and wish for things I can make happen if I try hard enough. I don’t want to miss out on memories with my kids.

I wish my mom would have said something. I wish she would have shown us her list. I wish I could have helped my mom check a few things off her bucket list. The only reprieve I have is to make sure we live our life to the fullest and mark some things off her list… as well as our own. Life should be more about actions than dreams. Today… just do it.

What’s on your bucket list?

How are you working towards checking things off your list?