Jason Robie: Love and Loss

On Christmas Eve I lost a friend to an avalanche in Colorado. It was the first avalanche death for the state this year. He made one small miscalculation and our community lost a friend, a ski buddy and a cycling partner. Most of you reading this have lost someone close to you. It's never easy. There are many common feelings and thoughts we share. One of the more common ones is a desire to have more time or even just one more moment with our departed loved one. The painfully obvious lesson here is to make sure you make the most of the time you have. It's a cliché, but it is very true.

Believe it or not, we can experience the same feelings of loss, albeit not nearly as painful, when we sell our home. "Those feelings of loss can be particularly poignant if you have raised your family in this home or simply have a slew of other memories built up over the years," notes Badger Realty agent, Roland Turgeon. When I sold my duplex, I felt no remorse or loss. I had only lived there a short while and never really "connected" with the property. Selling the home I built over in Lincoln was a different story. I still knew, from the beginning, I was going to sell. But it did not make it any easier to walk away from that home.