WHAT MATTERS IS THE DASH

A reminder for the coming New Year.

You know how we go to the cementery and we always look at the dash? You know what I mean 1925-2006 e.g. We say, oh, he/she led a long life. That's good. 2005-2007... OMG! A baby!!! How sad.

After the death of my uncle from cancer a few years back, I thought about that. He was only 56. So wonderful and SO full of life. He died in few months of being diagnosed. Not much time for anything. Yet he threw HIMSELF a final birthday party that August and invited our entire family to be there. His way of saying goodbye in a "happy" atmosphere. He died way too young and yet he had lived a lifetime within the dash that separated his year of birth from his year of death.

He had come from Cuba in 1980 - had built a very successful business; had a life partner of 25 years who he had a wonderful relationship with; had traveled the entire world (literally) in 20 years!!! He was my love and my hero. So instead of focusing on the year he was born and the year he died which is engraved on his tombstone, I decided to focus on the DASH!!! Those years in between when he lived such a full and wonderful life!!!

We will all have this inscription on our tombstones - mine will read 1960- _____. And no matter what that _____ turns out to be, I want the dash to count. I want those years in between to be remembered by my children, grand children and my family. I want my life to matter.

So this coming year - this 1st day of January - make a commitment to yourself that what matters is the DASH and do something wonderful with it!