the life in between

lily pond
van dusen garden, vancouver

Today I participated one of the rituals of life–a funeral. It was a beautiful service punctuated by a teary-eyed solo by the deceased’s son-in-law and a heartfelt eulogy by her grand-daughter.

Mrs. Hentzen was a teacher and through her vocation she had an influence on a great many people beyond her immediate family. She was loved and respected by her students and there are sure to be some who will hear of her passing and think about how she helped shape their lives. As with any true vocation, she did not stop being a teacher after working hours; she also passed on some valuable lessons to her family. Her grand-daughter shared three of the many things she learnt: patience, humility and diligence. All things that in fact apply to us as photographers.

After the funeral I headed off to work for another day in the salt mines. When I returned home this evening, I found an email from my friend Rebecca. She had sent me a link to a poem by Linda Ellis called “The Dash“. It was the perfect bookend to my day. The poem is set to a slideshow of images and is about a man who stood up to speak at the funeral of a friend. He gave the two dates that were the beginning and the end of her life but what he spoke about was the dash, the life in between. A small line that represented all her time on earth and what it meant.

For photographers, it won’t matter if you shot with Canon or Nikon or even Olympus (yes Sue, that’s for you!). What will matter is how we spent our dash. Each day I am humbled by photographers like Sean Gallagher who did amazing work at an orphanage for the blind in China or Esther Havens who just returned from Uganda where she worked with Charity: Water, an organization that brings clean, safe drinking water to people in developing countries.

When all is said and done, how will you have spent your Dash?