The Tullmann Travels

 Looking back at Switzerland, looking forward to how we spend our days at home.

📅 August 19, 2025

Looking Back

When I think about the whole trip — the effort, expenses, exhaustion — what made it all worth it? Adventure. And time with family.

Adventure is more than just climbing mountains or crossing oceans. It’s going somewhere new, setting out on a long journey with purpose. Ours was simple: to have fun, to see beautiful mountains, and to be together.

Time is the real currency. It’s the hours and days we spend on earth — the breath in our lungs, the blood in our veins. You can’t buy it back, and each of us has only so many days on the clock.

After the trip, I downloaded an app called “Death Clock.” It asks a few health questions and then spits out a date. Mine: Saturday, February 28, 2065. I’d be 85. Morbid? Maybe. But sobering enough to remind me: I won’t be here forever. None of us will.

Family is where all of this comes together. It’s your tribe, where you belong, and the people you love. For us — the three of us — this trip was a stretch of precious days before Jonas grows up and leaves our home. That thought alone made every mile, every franc, every weary step worth it.

Looking Forward

So how should this trip shape the way we live back home?

Traveling to Switzerland gave us a deeper appreciation — not only for what we have, but also for what we don’t. We may not live surrounded by towering peaks or emerald lakes, but we have each other. We have a home, a life, and countless blessings right where we are.

Trips like this are like peeks into another world. You get to touch the beauty, soak it in, and then return home with new gratitude. The point isn’t to wish our lives away for the next adventure — it’s to carry that adventurous spirit into the ordinary.

We can plan, risk, and explore in our everyday lives. In our neighborhood, our relationships, our faith. We can live with the same attentiveness to people and places that travel wakes up in us. And above all, we can prioritize time with those we love. Because that time is just as valuable here as it was halfway across the world.

A Life Lesson for Jonas

Jonas, if you ever read this years from now, I want you to remember this: time is treasure.

God may give you 85 years, maybe more, maybe less. Every single moment is a gift. A day, an hour, even a minute — once it passes, it doesn’t return.

That’s what makes time priceless. Not its length, but what you do with it. It becomes meaningful when you give it away to people — when you love, laugh, forgive, and show up.

Above all, love God. And just like Jesus said, the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. Do that, and you’ll live a rich life. Not because of what you own or achieve, but because of the love you’ve shared.

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Trips end. Suitcases get unpacked. Photos fade into the cloud. But time — when we choose to spend it together — is the truest gift.