It All Depends...

We say it more often than we realize. It all depends on the weather. It all depends on my schedule. It all depends on what the kids have going on. It all depends on how I’m feeling. It all depends on whether the flight is on time. It all depends…

Life is filled with contingencies. We humans living life prefer certainties. Sometimes that feeling of not being able to control everything all the time eats at us, frustrates us, drives us crazy, discourages us, humbles us. But there are so many factors that seem to only exist up in the air. Will this happen or that? Will they say yes or no? Will it work or not? Will I be capable of pulling this off or will I fall flat on my face? We don’t know. We can’t predict. We live many of our twenty-four hours in a day in limbo. With contingencies. Without the rock-solid support of certainties.

Many of us have probably heard of/are familiar with/own of a copy of the poem titled “The Dash” [a Google search will bring it up in seconds!]. The words of the poem draw our attention to a grave marker bearing the dates of a person’s span of life. From this date to that date. From birth to death. Sitting silently between the two dates is a dash. The poem, written by Linda Ellis, prompts us to think about “what that little line is worth.” The in-between time. A person’s waking, walking, wondering, wandering time on earth. That time for many is decades long. Tragically, for some it is a few brief days. A few of us reach the century mark. How long will we live? We don’t know. We can’t predict. It all depends…

The poet makes a point. What we can know with certainty and can predict with some measure of control is how well we will live however long we live. We are aware there’s a difference between existence and living, surviving and thriving, exhibiting vital signs and exuding vibrancy. There are a gazillion ways to view this marvel of being alive and at least that many strategies available to encourage us to enjoy the experience as fully as possible. Find something that works. Listen to someone who inspires. Watch the way others do it. We don’t know how long that dash will be for us. As Frederick Buechner puts it, “One life on this earth is all that we get, whether it is enough or not enough, and the obvious conclusion would seem to be that at the very least we are fools if we do not live it as fully and bravely and beautifully as we can.” A life that's full, brave, beautiful. Upon what does that depend?

Written by Rev. Rebecca Taylor, Pastor, without the engineering of AI