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Who's Inspiring You Today?

Guest post by: Michael Hume

Article Overview: Draw inspiration from the great people in your life, wherever you find them - don't leave out the ones with whom you don't agree on everything. Cultivate that inspiration. Because now it's your turn... you have to live a life that inspires the generations to come....

Who's Inspiring You Today?

Be Grateful For The Folks Who Came Before You She was born October 20, 1925, in a tiny southwestern Kansas town, to a ranching family. When she was still little, the family moved west to a dirt-floor dug-out in the dry lands of southeastern Colorado, and there she grew up and went to school.

That's right: grew up in a hole in the ground. Rode a horse miles to town to go to school. Had hard chores to do, early in the morning and until well past dark. And she wept bitterly and fought with God when her best friend, her older sister, died as a child from a severe attack of cancer of the eye.

Life went on, and so did the relentless dust storms that tormented everyone in that part of the world for the majority of the years of her childhood. The air was full of dirt, and the Dust Bowl certainly claimed its victims, but she was not one of them. She kept doing her chores, riding her horse, and hitting the school books.

With perfect grades, she became the salutatorian of her tiny high school class (back in the days when a high school class only had one valedictorian and one salutatorian). All but two of the boys in her Class of 1943 immediately signed up for the military and went off to fight the Germans and the Japanese. Those two boys who didn't go to war had to have a good story about why they didn't (one was in a wheelchair).

(By the way, I think about that in contrast to my slightly-larger high school class, 35 years later, from which only two boys - me, and my buddy Tom - volunteered for the Cold War military. We needed a good story for our classmates about why we'd do such a nutty thing, though I don't recall what story we came up with back then.)

So the boys went to war, and she went off to the big city (Denver) to study chemistry at the university. Met and married a military man, and raised three kids with him. Worked for decades as a teacher and school counselor, saved the family's money, invested wisely, and built a modest real-estate empire that includes 320 acres of prairie that she keeps saying "will make you kids some money some day."

She's still around, and so's her husband, though he turned 90 about a month ago and today's her 86th birthday. A couple years ago she took the whole family horseback riding for her birthday (and she got into trouble for letting her horse get to a modest trot). And just a couple months ago, we watched the two of them get up and dance when one of their favorite songs came on the music contraption at our house. They can still cut a rug.

I've been inspired by her for two decades, since I met (and later married) her oldest daughter. I know you're not supposed to be enamored of your mother-in-law... and there are times we want to sock each other, for sure... but I can't help but respect and draw inspiration from Nan. There are two big reasons: one, she must've done something right as a mother, because my wife is the best human ever. And the other reason is the life Nan has lived. She had lots of chances to turn to victimhood... but she chose self-reliance and personal responsibility at every turn. Even if you don't agree with such a person on some things, you have to admire that about her.

Who's inspiring you today? Think about the brave, self-reliant people who came before you. They knew they couldn't do it alone, and they prayed to God for everything from rain to personal strength, and they worked their butts off to help themselves and each other. And they left you a country where you can do anything from start your own business to become president.

Draw inspiration from the great people in your life, wherever you find them - don't leave out the ones with whom you don't agree on everything. Cultivate that inspiration. Because now it's your turn... you have to live a life that inspires the generations to come.

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Article Tags: entrepreneurship, health wealth and happiness, inspirational leadership, personal responsibility



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