What’s Your Dash?

Just recently I was at a funeral for a family friend of my wife and I’s. It was one of those shocking stories where someone young and vibrant was suddenly taken from this world by an absolute freak of nature deal. As I’m sitting there at the funeral, listening to family and friends memories and stories, I couldn’t help but let my mind start to drift about what would my own funeral look like? What would people say about me and the things I’ve done? Would they go on and on or would it be hard to find someone to stand up there for more than 5 minutes? It certainly got me thinking about the priorities in my life and the things that I think are important that probably really aren’t. The other thing that really got me thinking was when they put the year of birth and the year of death up on the screen: “1972 – 2013”. It was nothing fancy, just white numbers on a black screen. As the service continued, I kept thinking about those numbers, more specifically about the little dash in between them. That dash represents all this person ever did and ever was. From the moment they were born to the minute they died. I kept thinking to myself, “What am I doing with my dash?” That’s a difficult question to answer because it forces you to confront your own mortality, not really something that most people like to do. None of us knows when our time on Earth is at an end, and none of us can properly prepare for that moment. What we can do is make sure that our loved ones are taken care of. You see, this particular friend of mine did ZERO estate planning. That means that even while dealing with the loss of a spouse, sibling, and friend, this family is going to get to wander through the Colorado Probate System for about the next year to year and a half. The last thing I ever want to do is leave my family with a mess after I’m dead and gone. Not the best way to remember me. I believe that part of my dash is making sure that everything is in order and taken care of for my family when I’m dead and gone. What’s your dash going to be about?