Have you heard the anonymous quote:
Everyone’s tombstone will have two dates separated by a dash. That little dash is your time on this planet measured against eternity. How do you plan to live out that dash?
Your blogging challenge this week?
Blog about your dash.
If the above quote is truth, how do you plan to live out the dash in your life on this planet?
This is one of many blogging challenges I offer weekly to help kick your blogging ass. For more challenges, see the Blog Challenge category.
Site Search Tags: blog challenge, blog writing, blog your dash, blogging challenge, blog your life, blog your purpose, blog purpose
Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network
Subscribe 
Via Feedburner 
Subscribe by Email
Lorelle on WordPress 
7 Comments
Great question and challenge, Lorelle!
I think about this question quite often — because I’m rather introspective but also because I think it’s one of the most significant questions that can be asked.
Holy smokes, what a quote! 😀 And besides, it’s a great question for anyone trying to live a meaningful life. (Okay, maybe it could be on one of the Successories posters, but still…)
I always been fond of the “rocking-chair test”: “When you’re an old woman/man/person sitting on a rocking chair, rocking away thinking back on your life, what will you think?”
Its not a quote , it is a poem, I think you need to know the whole story, it is a very nice poem that deserves to written out.
“When Linda Ellis wrote her poem, The Dash, in one afternoon ten years ago (1996), it would change her life forever. In 239 words, she captured the “Simple Truths” of why we were put on this earth.”
The Dash
Linda Ellis
I read of a man who stood to speak
At the funeral of a friend
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
From the beginning to the end
He noted that first came her date of her birth
And spoke the following date with tears,
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years
…[EDITED OUT]….
So, when your eulogy is being read
With your life’s actions to rehash
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent your dash?
——————————-
http://www.thedashpoemmovie.com/
Wow. Thanks for making us take time out of our busy days, filled with things that we think are important, and forcing us to step back and be introspective.
The significance of that “dash” is remarkable, isn’t it? We all need to keep our lives in perspective. Sometimes that is hard to do, as the day-to-day exigencies tend to get in the way of what is really important.
Thanks, Lorelle. It’s time for me to go be a bit more introspective.
What an ingenious idea to get your blogging juices flowing! I could not resist it so I did my first blog on the subject. You have it in your trackbacks.
Thank you for such good blogging ideas!
George
“The Dash” by Linda Ellis inspired me to write a reply….and of course, in poem form. I titled it “The Answer”. I would like to share it with the group.
THE ANSWER
by R Lynton Bridges
“How did you live your dash?” you ask.
That’s not for me to say.
It’s for all of those who’s lives I touch
To tally the score at the end of my day.
It matters not at all, the years,
The spread twixt first and last.
What matters most when I am gone
Is how the memory of me is cast.
In my short life one thing I’ve learned —
It’s not what I have gained or lost.
The cars…the house…and all the toys,
Mean nothing when my coin’s final flip is tossed.
So I think about this from time to time
And though I can not change my past,
I try to act along the way,
as if this moment is my last.
I have slowed down my life a bit,
So the truth I can congeal.
And try to keep in my heart
What those around me feel.
Love is all I really have,
In all the years since my birth.
So I love the people in my life,
While I am still here on earth.
When I look back from life’s beyond,
A smile I will often wear.
Content that the respect we all deserve,
I gave while I was here.
And when my eulogy is told to all
With my life’s actions to rehash….
I hope, I pray, I know I can be proud
Of how I spent my dash.
@ R Lyton Bridges:
Lovely. Thank you.
13 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[…] dem Titel Blog Challenge: Blog Your Dash bringt die WordPress-Expertin und exzellente Bloggerin Lorelle VanFossen dieses anonyme Zitat: […]
[…] dem Titel Blog Challenge: Blog Your Dash bringt die WordPress-Expertin und exzellente Bloggerin Lorelle VanFossen dieses anonyme Zitat: […]
[…] dem Titel Blog Challenge: Blog Your Dash bringt die WordPress-Expertin und exzellente Bloggerin Lorelle VanFossen dieses anonyme Zitat: […]
[…] Your Dash – My School Years I found this article (Blog Challenge: Blog Your Dash « Lorelle on WordPress) browsing WordPress and it sounded like a rather interesting challenge. When you go to a cemetery, […]
[…] found this article (Blog Challenge: Blog Your Dash « Lorelle on WordPress) browsing WordPress and it sounded like a rather interesting challenge. When you go to a cemetery, […]
[…] Posted on December 27, 2007 by boomerlife I guess I just can’t stop with the “Blog your Dash” theme which I first saw it in Lorelle’s blog Lorelle on […]
[…] Lorelle on WordPress wrote an article about this anonymous quotation. Needless to say, these three sentences are quite profound and require a great deal of thought. Introspective thought. The kind of thought that is often easier to leave for another day. […]
[…] Blog Challenge: Blog Your Dash […]
[…] Blog Challenge: Blog Your Dash […]
[…] Blog Challenge: Blog Your Dash […]
[…] Blog Your Dash […]
[…] Blog Challenge: Blog Your Dash […]
[…] Blog Challenge: Blog Your Dash: A challenge to get you to blog about your dash – the life spent between date of birth and death. […]