What's In Your Dash?

Good morning son! Well, here we are, you and me on Sunday mornings just like old times. I'd get you ready, then I'd get ready and then we'd wait for dad to get ready! You'll be happy to know that not much has changed: more great memories that we thought we were making for you, turned out to be for us. Dad walked entirely too much yesterday and I would imagine he was up with leg cramps last night because the lotion is out on the counter and it's 9 AM and he's still sleeping. That's something you never saw in our home while growing up! It's good that we both can now. Sleeping until we want to get up is a luxury that we very much enjoy.

It's been another full and busy week, dad taking care of the neighbor's cat and me helping with the kids for a portion of the week. Miss Josie and I made a summer wreath for their front porch door. Darn, I should have taken a picture. Anyway, it's pink, white and purple. She says it's a family wreath but it has the word "princess" blazoned" across the front in pink lettering so you

can take that with a wink and a nod! She wanted to do her own hot-melting so dad and I bought her a Cool-Melt glue gun. All metal and parts that heat are coated so if she bumps it or gets up against it she doesn't get burned. She's a lot like her Aunt Jan though. She had to try it for herself so as it was heating she put h fingers to the tip of the gun and yelled, "Aunt Jan, it's HOT, not COOL". It's not hot enough to burn her unless she just "hangs on" but she didn't. I had to explain again that it has to get hot to melt the glue but it's padded and coated so you can't accidentally burn yourself but that you don't intentionally see if you can get burned. She determined that she didn't want to glue anything on, she'd just tell me what to do. Some things never change! As she was instructing me in wreath making she got out some birdhouses and decided she'd paint. A few minutes later I looked over and she had her hot melt gun and was gluing some decorations onto her birdhouse.

Another exciting and scary milestone this week; Sierra got her driver's license!! Woo hoo! The scary thing is, that she's old enough to do that. She graduates in May 2014. I'm telling you, it's as though time is a whisper in the wind and it's giggling, "bye-bye, bye-bye". Sierra says we're going for coffee at Starbucks when she gets back from Maine. Let the good times roll!

We haven't seen much of Hunter, Trey or Dylan, or better known as the "B Boys", this summer. They're busy too and schedules just haven't meshed. I know Hunter is working and is training for high school football. 

This coming week dad and I do not have one single appointment on our calendars! Woo hoo! We're going to work with saws and wood and I can't wait. Since we have two neighbors that work late and sleep in the mornings we're going to do our wood work in the afternoons. In the mornings this week I'm finally going to be able to work on our lobby and front entrance. It's horrible and I can't stand it any longer. It's really pathetic and I can't wait to get started. I have my red paint for our front door and am so anxious to get it painted BUT, it's going to take a lot of cleaning before I can start painting....so hello Ray!. Even so, I am so happy to have a week to get it done. Have I told you I'm excited?

Cleaning, painting and wood work are not the adventures we had planned when we retired. At least not the only adventures. But so far, that's what our adventures have been and will be for the foreseeable future. We pay our bills and make ends meet and the Lord takes care of the needs but so far the extra for adventures is not on our horizon for us to see. That doesn't mean we don't have those dreams any longer it just means that coming back from loosing you is taking much longer than we ever thought it would. Although time is passing quickly, healing is

progressing slowly. Plus, we don't move as quickly as we use to, unless of course we're falling down stairs; then we move very quickly. We are not in this boat alone. Many, many seniors have worked hard their entire lives and are just making ends meet. We continue to pray that the Lord will help us find that little niche in this economy so we can make a few extra dollars each month so we can take an adventure once in awhile. We'll find it. In the meantime we're very grateful for a beautiful place to live, groceries and our bills paid. That's more than many, many, many people can say this morning. What is it dad always says, "Faith is believing it's so, when it's not so, so that it may be so". 

It certainly is true that life is a journey. I often think about my life and the journey. I wonder what people are doing to say about that "dash" on my tombstone, or urn, as the case may be. "Jan Jamison, Born - Died".  I hope the dash includes that I loved the Lord, I married a man that served the Lord with his whole heart and won many souls for the Lord and that I was his helpmate through life and we served together. I hope the dash will say that I raised a son who grew to be a man and servant of God, who was never ashamed of his faith or his God and joyfully went home to his heavenly father when called. I hope the dash says I was able to do the same. I hope the dash says that I helped people, that I loved my friends and cherished the trust and friendship they bestowed on me. I hope the dash says that my God was pleased with me. I hope the dash says I loved the family God gave me here on this earth whether I was every able to meet them all or not. I hope the dash says I did what I was able to help others in whatever way was possible for me to be able to do so. I hope the dash says that I share my love of God whenever possible. I hope the dash says that I was not ashamed of my relationship with my heavenly father. I hope the dash says that my life was not built around material things but of loving and caring for His sheep as He asked of me. I hope the dash says that I was a person of integrity and honesty. I hope the dash says, "you have been a good and faithful servant". That's what I hope my dash says.

Until next week, be Aaron, love mom

Subject: How Do You Live Your Dash?
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 he first came to her date of birth
And spoke the following date with tears,
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years. (1900 – 1970)
For that dash represents all the time
That she spent alive on this earth…
And now only those who loved her
Know what that little line is worth.
For it matters not, how much we own:
The cars…the house…the cash,
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.
So think about this long and hard….
Are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left
That can still be rearranged.
If we could just slow down enough
To consider whats true and real,
And always try to understand
The way other people feel.
And be less quick to anger
And show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives
Like we’ve never loved before.
If we treat each other with respect,
And more often wear a smile….
Remembering that this special dash
Might only last a little while.
So when your eulogy’s being read
With your life’s actions to rehash
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent your dash?
Author Linda Ellis