It’s not the years in your life that count. To truly live your dash means to know what that little line is worth in comparison to all your years on Earth. What matters is how we live, love & spend our dash. Materialistic gains or even how you’ll be remembered in a church filled with grief-stricken peers. To live your dash isn’t about acceptance. Like a skier chasing powder days, or a surfer seeking the perfect wave. Find out what you want in life and pursue it with a burning passion. The time in between isn’t predetermined, and there’s no guarantee that you’ll get to see the life your planning 50 years from now. We have no control over the dates on either side of our dash. A little symbol between two dates was put in place of all your accomplishments, kind gestures, sacrifices, birthdays and so much more along the way. A punctuation mark representing all the different versions of you. Leaving an impression for us to recall their dash. People wander in and out of our lives for a variety of reasons. I’m living my dash, but am I? What constitutes a good dash? Achievements? Social invites? Money? Knowledge? Happiness? Am I the judge of my dash, or are my peers? In the end, I believe only you are in charge of where your pursuit of happiness leads and what that entails along the path of life. I’ve filled my memory bank from moments with friends & family as well as with strangers. This subtle message triggered a flood of emotions when I heard a dash represents the moments in my life. I’ve lived my dash, but have I? I’ve sat on mountains, swam in oceans. Experienced foreign cultures, and learned some hard lessons along the way. Live your dash represents the hyphen between the day you were born and the day you died. A simple message that flooded me with emotion. Something that touched far too close too home for me, but those words “live your dash” meant nothing to me until he unveiled the message behind this quote.

A friend from another lifetime uttered the words “live your dash” as he recited his father’s eulogy. Far too often we get caught up in the stress of life and forget to take in its beauty or cherish the moments with loved ones until it’s too late.

Recently, I attended a funeral that had a subtle, but powerful message.

Live your dash poem