Living in the Dash ~

God continues to impress upon me about making my time have eternal value. I love poetry -reading it and writing it -Some time back I read a poem by Linda Ellis called The Dash. It's not about the year we're born or the year we'll leave this earth.......it's about what we do in the dash. I am so grateful to be living in the dash. I love the scripture about God's mercies being new every morning. Along with that comes a new day to live in the dash - My challenge is just to make it count. It's easy to start strong each day and even to end strong each day but what about all those moments in between? Do I capitalize on each moment? Do I live with purpose and create great memories in the dash in between sunrise and sunset?

Summertime always gives me the opportunity to slow down, get out of the routineness of life and relax some. I love routine and structure but I am really embracing not living on one right now. I love being able to not wake up to the alarm clock. Most mornings I wake up to Preslie and truly that is so much more pleasant. Everyone wakes up at a different time and it's giving me a chance to have a few moments alone with each of them to start the day.

We are all home-bodies. There are days we don't leave the house in summer til we go to the pool after lunch. My agenda is being refined. It's a good thing because I know soon enough the 'dog days of summer' will end and we will have to get back to a school day routine! But for today, I love that our mornings just are very low key. Most afternoons we go to the pool and in between sometimes just nothing-ness - The flexibility of just going with the flow....yesterday Addison wanted me to read to her mid-morning. It's awesome that we could - no agenda just here to do whatever we wanted. We read mid-morning and again at night! Simple. Taking time in the middle of the day to just stop what we're doing and read a book, play cards, work a puzzle, walk around the block, bake cookies - building memories.

So, I don't know that the dash has to be full of extraordinary things.........I think just the simple things in life are what make the dash count. Laughing more, loving completely and not wasting a moment! God has entrusted me with 4 extraordinary relationships with my children. They have eternal value and I pray they live in the dash!