The Dash
October 7, 2008
Living a no regrets life. Sounds like a wonderful plan, doesn’t it? I often find myself thinking about an event from my past and thinking, “I should have done it differently. I wonder what would have happened if I did it this way?”
I think it’s the daydreamer in me, but I catch myself imagining that I could go back in time, do things differenty and change the course of my life. I would stop myself from hurting those I love, I would make different career choices, sometimes I even daydream about moving to the big city fresh out of high school and never getting married. What would my life have been like if I had only done things differently?
The practical side of me bristles when I catch myself dreaming in this way. Pondering regrets and daydreaming about ‘what if’ is only a waste of time and mental energy. “You only have today,” I tell myself. Nonetheless, I have many regrets.
The Dash
In One Month to Live, Kerry and Chris talk about a starkly honest fact. When you die, your life is reduced to two dates with a dash in the middle, imprinted on a gravestone. That dash represents the collective hopes, dreams, accomplishments, failures, and regrets of an entire life. We have no control over the date we are born or die. But we decide what that dash in the middle represents.
Living Your Dash, or Dashing to Live?
I am convinced that it is not the fear of death, of our lives ending, that haunts our sleep so much as the fear…that as far as the world is concerned, we might as well never have lived.~ Harold Kishner
That quote hits me hard. What about my life is worthwhile? Am I completely replaceable in every aspect of my life? Could someone else step in and run my business, love my husband, and raise my children better than I? Would the world be any different if I had never lived?
Am I living my life, or running from it?
If your life is filled with regrets, I challenge you to live the next 30 days without regrets, too. What do you have to lose? Only another regret that you could have changed your life, but chose to remain in your rut of regrets- coming to the end and realizing your dash could have been so much more.
Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives.~ Alan Sachs
My personality favors looking back on my life with regrets. I’m working hard to change that. Over the next few weeks, I plan to share with you my journey to a no regrets life. Will I make it to the end a changed person? I hope so. But failures and triumphs alike will be posted here for your examination (and hopefully your inspiration).
Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should.~Psalm 90:12
What does your dash represent?
Comments
-
Jamie Simmerman
-
D. Copeland
-
Jamie Simmerman
-
Lance
