Colored Dots on a Line

Colored DOTS on a Line

As I write this post, my eyes are misty with tears. One year ago today, I lost my precious sister-in-law and friend, Dana to breast cancer. Needless to say, it wasn’t easy and at times, still isn’t. No loss, no death is ever easy. We all are a very close, God-fearing family, having love for one another and our faith in God has and still carries us. Personally, it gives me the reassurance that I’ll meet her again on her “Little House on the Prairie” in heaven.

After her passing, my brother-in-law, Wes, (my husband’s older brother) would write. At the time, I believe writing was his therapy and a way of relaying sweet memories of his beloved wife of 27 years. And…I think it sent an inadvertent message to others, letting them know God was helping him through and that he was going to be alright.

When I read his note titled, “Colored Dots on a Line”, I was touched. Then I thought how appropriate his attitude or outlook would be for any of us, whether we have faced loss or are in the ongoing, raging battle of infertility. So, I asked him if some day if I could use what he wrote. And he said, “Sure, you can use anything I’ve written to help others.” I’ve taken excerpts from his words. Even though I italicized some of his words, I cannot make enough emphasis about them. Let these words of insight that have flowed from his heart, touch yours.

As I began to write this post I could’ve easily added a picture of Dana and I. There are a pile of them within arm’s reach on my credenza. I leave them there purposely to remember. I pick up them up from time to time. I smile when I see her standing next to me as my matron of honor on my wedding day and think “what a trooper!” She has just given birth to her second child three weeks earlier. I laugh as I look at the picture of us in Cabos San Lucas on the Baja beach…in our bikinis, donning mask and snorkels, with skinny thighs! So many memories made on family trips. I tear up as I gaze at the last picture of us taken together at our in-law’s 50^th wedding celebration. We’re arm and arm, cheek to cheek. Remembering vividly as the photographer was snapping the picture, we were telling one another that we loved each other.

But instead of a picture of her and I, I give you these Colored Dots in a Line.

The brightly colored dots connecting into a beautiful rainbow, bright and fresh so like Dana! Her smile was plentiful, her nature pleasant and beautiful, her life bright and fresh always for others!

Colored Dots on a Line by Wes Westfall.

Life is a finite measure on a timeline that stretches from infinity past to infinity future. Your first birthday was a dot on that line that in most cases was a joyful occasion for your parents and others. The events of your life are marked on that timeline, and your final day is a mark on that timeline, all with dots.

There will always be situations we’re put in that are not lovely and happy, but as someone close to me said, “We can take these events and let them make us bitter or better.”

I’ve come to realize as I reflect on the life I had with my Dana, there were hundreds of dots painted with bright and cheerful colors, marking a happy and pleasant events in our lives. There were very few that were dark and gray, and none so black as the final mark on my timeline concerning her.

So this idea of dots on a timeline began to bounce around in my imagination, and this is what I’ve come up with to help myself.

We had a few unpleasant dots we chose to make into learning points. These learning points helped to improve our ‘future dots’, so to speak. With Dana’s appointed time finished here on earth, I have realized it truly is our choice as to how we paint our dots. I can make a conscience choice to make a dot and I can make a choice to make it bright or dark. This simple concept, if considered, can bring a fullness and happiness that is so rewarding. Just as I believe, I was created for His pleasure, I also believe my happiness brings Him pleasure. Dots can be turning points that send you on a new path, but always on your allotted line.

If I can learn to accept that I have a DOT right here and all I have to do is act, then I can place them wherever I want and paint them as would please my God. Of course it’s gonna require extra effort from time to time…

The only thing of value we leave is the memories we leave with our loved ones, then it would make sense to place those dots everywhere you can and paint them bright enough to be seen by everyone that happens to glance your way.

Please choose, from this point, to attempt to place your dots deliberately and to paint them as brightly as possible. The folks you touch will thank you one day and on that final DOT the Lord will say, “Well done thy good and faithful servant.”