Making the Dash Count

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮? 𝐈𝐭 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤.
This week I asked myself what I was doing with "the dash" of my own life.

I attended the funeral of a good friend. There was no warning. No opportunity to prepare for the goodbye. I listened as a room full of people shared stories, celebrated a life, and a family began to carry the weight of a very different chapter.

As I stood near the fountain at the cemetery, I was reminded that we don't control the dates on either side of our lives. But we can be more intentional about it. Dakota Meyer calls this "Own the Dash."

One of my favorite stories I heard about Cheryl: she used to drive around collecting the signs nailed to telephone poles. She'd put them in gift bags and deliver them to the zoning office to demonstrate just how terrible all those signs made the neighborhoods look.

I love that. A little mischief. A little civic activism. A whole lot of personality.

How do I make my dash matter?
How do I show up for people? What small things do I do that might make someone else's day, or life a little better? A life well lived isn't always made up of big, headline-worthy moments. It can be the fun quirks, random acts of kindness, and the things that made someone unmistakably THEM.

Thank you, Cheryl.
An ultimate storyteller. The big heart of a special education teacher. A Steelers fan with eternal optimism (which, if you know anything about being a Steelers fan, takes commitment!).

And for the reminder to own the dash.
𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭.