Living the Dash in Between:
What the Heartbeat Teaches Us About Life
When you look at a heart monitor, you see more than just numbers and lines—you see a lifetime. A bright red heart, a faded one, and a sinus rhythm tracing the space between them. That rhythm is the “dash in between,” the measure of our days from first breath to last.
In medicine, the language is clinical:
Normal Sinus Rhythm: 60–100 beats per minute.
Sinus Tachycardia: a racing heart, over 100 beats per minute.
Sinus Bradycardia: a slowing under 60 beats per minute.
But these rhythms are more than medical—they are metaphors for life itself.
We all live through the ups and downs as natural as a heartbeat. There are tachycardia moments—the mountain tops, the thrills, the loves, the fears—that make our hearts race for better or worse. And there are bradycardia seasons—times when grief, illness, or age slows us until it feels like our spark is slipping away.
The truth is, there is no handbook for balance. Life is messy, unpredictable, and deeply human. What matters is how we live in the rhythm. How we spend the dash in between—choosing not just to survive, but to live in ways that leave an impact, a legacy, and love behind.
Still, we were never meant to do it alone. Sometimes it takes mentors, encouragers, or kindred spirits to bump our hearts back into rhythm when we’ve lost the beat. Those lifelines matter. They keep us steady when our rhythm falters.
This is what my heartbeat—and this space—is all about. Words shaped by a lifetime, flowing out to comfort, to remind, to call us back to courage. It’s about living strongly, fiercely, and bravely until the last beat.
Because a lifetime isn’t just measured in minutes or years—it’s measured in the rhythm of how we live the dash in between.
Every heartbeat tells a story. May yours be lived fiercely, bravely, and with love in the dash in between.
🪷
Jen 💙