I was reminded of the dash as I sat in church and our Senior Pastor challenged us to write our own obituary. He told us we had one hundred and forty characters to leave the message for our head stone. What is it we want to be remembered as, what words describe those days between the numbers? My mind quickly went to an old poem I had heard sometime in my past by Linda Ellis called “The Dash”.

I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend,

He referred to the dates on her tombstone from the beginning to the end.

He noted that the first came the date of birth and spoke the following date with tears,

But 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 what matters not how much we own; the car, the house, the cash.

What matters most is how we lived and loved and how we spent our dash.

I always give these words some thought, even more as the years have past. My goal in life is to continue move forward each day to learn, love and leave a legacy that truly helps others.

I am not sure how my one hundred and forty characters will be used, but I will try to make the most of them.

How are you going to move forward, and what will your headstone read?

Thanks for spending a few minutes with me today.