The Dash Between The Dates

This last fall my wife and I had the opportunity to take a week's vacation in New England. We traveled through Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. It's a beautiful landscape, with all the changing leaves, and I highly recommend visiting if you get the chance (early fall). One thing that particularly struck me was the old cemeteries. Growing up in Kansas I'm not use to seeing dates in the 1600's. Here lies Sara Safford, 1685-1723.....Andrew Smith, 1709-1729.... James Hartford, 1690-1742......and so on.
Cemetery headstones have one thing in common.... the "dash" between the dates. A person's entire life history is, in it's finality, summed-up in the chisled-out, two inch line. Some lines represent an infant, representing a life that ended much too early... while other lines represent decades of love, laughter, earthly pursuits, hopes and dreams.
In the Bible, James (the brother of Jesus) writes in his letter to fellow believers.... "What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." (James 4:14). The apostle Peter echoes this sentiment in his epistle by quoting the Old Testament Prophet, Isaiah: "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of the Lord stands forever." (First Peter 1:24).
The dash between the dates is a stark reminder that it's too easy to sum up the total of our lives by a simple line carved in stone. We are given the tremendous opportunity, in this life, of writing the content of our lives by the choices we do (or don't) make. Without a doubt our lives are confined by the circumstances we find ourselves in .... the time and place of our birth, our biological family, our physical, mental and financial limitations, etc.. but, we still have the capability to choose how we will respond to the circumstances surrounding us. At the beginning of this writing I was unaware that there was actually a poem called "The Dash". It was written by Linda Ellis and I think it says all we need to consider as we wake up every day, pen in hand, ready to write another line, another paragraph, another page,...another chapter... in the book of our lives....

THE DASH... by Linda Ellis

I read of a man who stood to speak
At a funeral of a friend
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
From the beginning to the end

He noted that first came the date of her birth
And spoke of the following date with tears
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years

For that dash represents all the time
That she spent alive on earth
And now only those who loved her
Know what that little line is worth

For it matters not how much we own
The cars, the house, the cash
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash

So think about this long and hard
Are there things you'd like to change?
For you never know how much time is left
That can still be rearranged

If we could just slow down enough
To consider what's true and real
And always try to understand
The way other people feel

And be less quick to anger
And show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives
Like we've never loved before

If we treat each other with respect
And more often wear a smile
Remembering this special dash
Might only last a little while

So when your euology is being read
With your life's actions to rehash
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spend your dash?