The Dash between the Dates - Lifeline Auckland


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The Dash between the Dates

By Bryan Wilshire

A few weeks ago I was invited to be a guest speaker for Microsoft New Zealand’s annual staff conference. They wanted to know about Lifeline, what it does, how it works, what it stands for and something about life outside of work. Now talking about Lifeline is easy. It is so easy to be proud of the work and passion of the people here giving of themselves both time and talent to benefit other people they will never meet. It was easy to talk about work, their work, and capture the energy and commitment the conference attendees had and of course their families and sport. But it was more than that as if they knew there was another unnamed quadrant to fill. Hence this thought.

A few months ago I wrote about a book given to Lifeline as a fund raiser by Pacific Brands titled “Dying to Know - Bringing death to life”. One page in particular stood out for me as something we all need to consider but is not always easy to achieve. That something is however very easy for people associated with Lifeline to take on board and shout about.

It is really only the dash between the dates that matters. The dash on the tomb stone separating our date of birth from our date of death. It is what do we do between birth and death that really matters.

Sure, we can all balance a job and family and some recreation, sport or hobby and they are all important, but what about the fourth quandrant. The giving back to our community. And this is where we each start to fill out the dash as we contribute to the society we each belong to.

Thank you for what you do to fill out the dash.
Bryan