Earlier this week I attended the funeral of a great and very dear friend. The funeral was, of course, a celebration of the home going of this man that had meant so much to me for many years. In the course of the funeral, a gentleman read the great poem, The Dash. It was not new to me but this time given my place in life, my dash, and the context of the man being celebrated in his passing, the power of those words has touched profoundly which brings me to this early morning.
The essence of the poem, which I highly recommend you reading, is that when our time comes, people will gather at our graveside and we will see all the headstones. All headstones are common in one regard with that being they reflect the birth and now the death date of the departed. At the birth date there is assumed that joy and tears abounded at the arrival of the new life. The end date, of course, reflects that point in time when life on this earth ended which again usually triggers tears with regrets, celebrations, honoring words but still, loss. Yet the most prolific information that, our, tombstone is not the dates but the separation of those dates by the dash for that dash is the journey of the life now etched on that rock marking the grave of the departed. I was impressed deeply by the simplicity and poignancy of that thought around the simple question, what am I doing with my Dash?
Last evening in conducting back-to-back chapel services at the Stark County Jail with The Dash still fresh in my mind, I spoke to the receptive inmates that came to the chapel services about their dash as they sat there in the jail garb and tan sandals yet very attentive and many moved to tears. See, their Dash is quite different and unique, as is ours as well for our Dash is one of its kind. Our journey through life will take many turns, cut through much rock, meander in many juxtapositions, interface with many different other Dashes with each of those interfaces modifying our own personal Dash. When I stop for just a moment, so many names begin to flood my mind that have adjusted and modified my Dash in so many ways to this very moment. Just a sprinkling of those people would be named Barnes, Holt, Morton, Stone, Williams, Berry,Lee, Park, Richards, Farley, Keim, Frazier, Wheeler, Sabaka, Friday, Watson, Brown, and the more I think on this concept the names flood even more powerful into my mind this morning. Each unique. Each special, Each powerful. Each for a purpose.
I can assume that my Dash has found its ways crossing many other Dashes in many ways due to the wide swath of diverse paths my life has taken in career, marriage, family, music, prison work, teaching, military, church and that list just keeps expanding but you get my point. Each of us reading this traverses the Dash of people every day. In seeing, listening and empathizing with hurting men weekly in jails, my heart continues to be touched powerfully with their Dashes in make poor choices, surrounding themselves with those that would pull them down versus pushing them up and wanting the best for them. When I realize the number of people that and continue to cross my Dash, I just have to stop and thank God for these good interfaces and thank him for pulling me back from those interfaces that would have taken me down a very different, noncontributive pathway with my life.
One of the things I speak often to many people about currently is that a person will only crave that which they have experienced. That craving can be a great thing and as well can be a devastatingly terrible thing but still, to gain a state of craving, a point of experiencing must take place. What one choose to experience is a very personal choice. I realize that not too profound but very potent in a person's Dash for that choice can and will alter and modify each person's Dash, right?
As I sit here in the quiet of a new morning of a new day of a new opportunity, my Dash will be out and about in Bible Study, meeting with a great former student, a full day at church tomorrow, a full week of singing in various locations and the drumbeat of Dash-dom bangs ever so loudly. But I never forget that that Dash can become permanent in one breath. I would ask that each of you reading this, please, do a Dash Analysis asking some frank question of yourself. Where is my Dash headed? How can I turn my Dash in a more proper and productive direction from this vantage point to a horizon of positive touch on others? How do I thank God for the Dash only He can give? When my Dash becomes permanent, where will I be residing for eternity?
I bid you a wonderful weekend and please know I appreciate each of you so much. Your many comments in so many ways are always uplifting and encouraging. Thank you for taking your time to read my blog or maybe this is part of my Dash running forward looking for another Dash to intersect with? Be blessed!
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