Lately, watching the news is hard. Reading articles about negatively impacting events in the newspapers are painful. It seems as though the majority of the stories are about tragic accidents or events. The headlines alone are often shocking. The stories that explain them in more depth often make me freeze up and tear up because of the horrific events that have happened. A shooting has occurred in one place. A car accident involving multiple vehicles in another.

It brings me so much sadness for the families that have lost precious relatives and friends, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, wives, and friends.

Deaths. Car Accidents. Shootings. Plane crashes. Rapes. Innocent people killed by a drunk driver. Guilty people who aren’t given a sentence that fits their crime. Violence relating to the presidential campaign, and fights breaking out because of the particular candidate someone supports.

The list of tragedies that occur daily across the nation and the world seems endless.

Some of the horrible events that occur are not always in the news, but they are just as impacting, if not more because sometimes you feel like you’re enduring them alone.

Cancer. Heart attacks. Miscarriages. Sickness. Depression. Eating Disorders. And that’s just a few.

Amidst the tragedies, there are people who are facing everyday struggles to survive, whether it be stress from work, financial struggles, familial problems, depression, anxiety, or literally any other hardship under the sun (because I could never name them all at once). You don’t get to tell people how they feel or that they are handling their problems wrong. Telling them that their problem is trivial is not an act of compassion or helping them. Offer your love and support to those you see that are in need of some love.

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I wish the world, as a whole, was a more loving place. It’s hard to maintain a positive outlook on life when so much tragedy is happening all around. It’s tough to keep going through life with such ease compared to families who have experienced such tragic events.

It’s difficult to stop wishing and keep living; to go on because we are able to, because we are alive and breathing. We have been given the gift of life, and we should live it fully. Life is too short. Everyone will tell you that, but some don’t listen until it’s too late. Like Kenny Chesney’s “Don’t Blink”. Take his advice: “Trust me friend, a hundred years goes faster than you think. Don’t blink.” It’s amazing how fast life flies by. If we’re not careful, we’ll miss the best days and cherish the wrong things.

A few other lines of the song that are beautiful to me are: “cause when your hourglass runs out of sand / you can't flip over and start again / take every breath God gives you for what it's worth.”

Trace Adkins sings a song called "You're Gonna Miss This," and it is also one that pleads you to cherish the present and not pine for the future. The line "you're gonna want this back / you're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast / these are some good times / so take a good look around / you may not know it now / but you're gonna miss this" is a great example of not realizing the importance of something or someone until they're gone.

We can’t get moments back from the past. So we have to make the most of the present. Don’t let it slip past you without appreciating it.

Remember to express love. Don’t leave your loved ones without saying goodbye, or without reminding them that you love them. Chances are, they already know, but life is too short. And full of uncertainties.