Yesterday morning, I received the very sad news that a friend had suddenly and unexplainably passed away on Tuesday. Shock and sadness overwhelmed. The memorial service was in a couple of hours his wife told me and I prepared to attend and honor this amazing soul lost too soon.
At the service, the Rabbi read a poem by Linda Ellis entitled "The Dash." In this poem, Ellis speaks of the fact that we focus often on the date of birth and date of death when it is in fact the dash in between that is what really matters.
My friend, Steve, lived his dash and lived it to the fullest. I was reminded as person after person spoke of their relationships with him throughout their lives of my own relationship with him. The idea of the loss of this man to so many made the chasm seem even greater.
What I realized was that how we live our dash determines the effect we have on the lives of others. Who we are is in that dash. What we want others to remember when we are gone is in that dash. We have a choice to make our dash full of life, love, laughter and smiles, just like Steve did, or to leave a barely visible dash. A life well spent has a dash that is full of memories that causes us to reflect on our own dash and work to ensure we also leave a lasting footprint in the sand.
"Life known as the dash,
Is where we leave our imprint,
Swirled in laughs and smiles."
In Memory of Steve Greenberg 2021
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