Today is the last day of August.  There is a freeze warning tonight, and all my potted tomato plants have found (hopefully temporary?) homes in our living room.  The Jackson Hole summer is fleeting, and, as always, I wonder where the long, warm summer days have gone.
I've realized this year that it doesn't matter how much or how little I take on in a given summer - the time still flies by just as quickly, and the bite of fall in the air still shows up in late August. 
But all that only makes those fleeting summer days a bit better, reminding me to never take anything for granted, to never forget that this day is amazing. I try to live life to the fullest, every day.
I recently volunteered to manage a benefit for the family of an amazing Jackson Hole woman who passed away tragically in a car accident several weeks ago, leaving behind her husband and 3-month old daughter.  To be honest, I'm not even completely sure of my motivation; it was almost as if my brain didn't have a say, and my heart simply made a decision to do the only thing that I really felt I could actually do to help.
I didn't know Kristen Karn.  I knew of her business, a dog-sitting company that was highly recommended by just about every animal lover in our valley. I know that when I heard what had happened, I cried.  I cried because it's not fair.  It's not fair for bad things to happen to good people.  It's not fair that one of the many people who fought to make a life in this valley and STAY here, to raise a family here, and to make a living here, should be dealt such a deadly hand.  And it's not fair that all the people who loved her now have to mourn.  And more than anything, it's not fair that her husband has to go on without her; that her daughter has to grow up never knowing her mother; that our community has to continue to grow without such a vibrant participant.
But we know that life isn't fair.  I don't need to preach that here.  I just need to ask for everyone to remember why Jackson Hole is so amazing, and why we all have chosen to make this our home, to make our lives here.
So I signed up to work around the clock to create a (hopefully) magical day next month not for our community to mourn, but for us to remember.  We need to remember one of us who is gone but never forgotten; to remember why we call this place home; and most of all, to remember that nothing is worth more than this day.
Please.  Tell the ones you love that you love them.  Hug your dog.  Get into the mountains.  Smile into the sunshine.  LIVE VIBRANTLY.