If you value your family, spend time with them.

I know people say this all the time but it's rarely heard so I'll say it again.

Time is precious and limited, we all are guilty of getting wrapped up in out own worlds and forgetting about those close to us, there's always tomorrow right?

I'll tell you a little personal story of recent events for me and my family. This is not for pity, it is to serve as a warning to try and not take things for granted.

My Dad has a few health conditions that have made his life very difficult in his later years, colitis to be specific. After his retirement I hounded him to make changes in his life to help him be healthier and so we could all make memories. The short version is, that condition ruined that and has been a hard thing to deal with. Needing to be careful what he eats, always needing to be close to a bathroom... It stopped us doing most things.

Recently he was taken ill, seemed like a bowel blockage, rushed to A&E many scans and tests later he was rushed into surgery, minutes from a rupture and certain death. They found the blockage was a cancerous tumour, had to remove his large bowel and give him a stoma, his appendix, 17 lymph nodes and several parts of his liver... all cancerous. To start with they said it stage 3 and should be perfectly manageable. Tests from the biopsies upped that to stage 4. 6-18 months life expectancy depending on treatment and the roll of the dice.

We've changed the way we do things now, we try to have a family movie night, we went on a random nostalgic caravan holiday all together. We actually interact with each other in a more meaningful way. It's not that we didn't spend time together before, but it's easy not to be 100% present in the moment when you know there's always tomorrow. We've done things as a family we never did before, never tried to arrange things or force a plan. His conditions stopped us in some respects... idleness stopped us finding ways around problems too.

We are ashamed to admit we always thought there was always tomorrow... there's no rush. Nothing puts life into perspective quite as fast as everything being normal... to someone just flipped an hour glass and every second counts.

If you love your family, ask yourself, do you spend enough time with them? Do you actually check in on them? If you got some terrible news about their health or even worse... would you regret not having done more?

Make those plans... pick up the phone... arrange a family dinner. You never know when their number will come up and there are no second chances.