To my the only grandfather I ever knew, thank you for showing me how to be gentle with the creatures of Gods creation. You showed me the only worthy reason to be angry was when defending the weak. You lived with honor among the natives of the land. You befriended the defeated warriors of the Lakota nation when every person of your race that you knew hated them. Their medicine men willingly bound up your wounds when your bones were broken because they loved you and respected you. You never boasted of such things, I learned them from your little daughter, who grew up and became my mother. I think of you often, how you were more interested in honor and respect than you were interested in the opinions of the "respectable". You were the first person to show me the art of hospitality, even though your abode was beyond unkempt, you offered buttered bread making sure you looked your little visitors in the eye when you talked and listened.
To the only grandmother I ever knew, thank you for showing me how to be grateful in all things, all the time. I treasure every moment spent with you. You lived a long life, yet I never heard you complain ever. As a little boy, I did not realize you were poor. You had nothing to speak of in a material sense, yet I have always considered you the richest person I have every known. You had treasures money could not buy. You had joy, contentment, and a peaceful disposition that made people want to be with you.
To my Dad, you showed me the value and importance of being supportive and encouraging. You demonstrated to me the importance of making a personal investment with time and talent to make the community a better place. You showed me the importance of having convictions in the face of withering criticism. You more than anyone showed me the importance of freely giving, and freely receiving while avoiding the corruption of greed and shame. You gave me the ability by watching you how to give whatever you did your best effort, and when that wasn't good enough for others, to not give up and keep on giving your best.
To my Mom, it has been said you can learn a lot just by watching. I learned a lot from you just by watching. By watching, I learned the importance of appreciating the natural gifts that God has placed in all of us, and the holy obligation we all have to recognize our God given gifts and honor Him by exercising that gift and doing our best with
To my uncle, my grandmother's brother, thank you for showing me that people are more important than religion, and a man is defined by his motives and actions, with words that are meant to bind the two together. You taught me without speaking a word the biblical principal of the mandate for the strong to serve and protect the weak. Certainly you had human weaknesses just as we all do, yet I never saw you wrong anyone or speak evil of a single person. You were always there to help your neighbor, and I was many times the recipient of your your acceptance when it would have been easier for you to be judgmental. If anyone I ever knew walked a Jesus walk with actions and attitudes, it was you. You had the greatest sayings, and I don't know if they were your originals or something of your generation, but you said things like "make do, or do without". If you were alive today, you would not be in bondage to credit and debt, because you lived what you spoke. You are one of the major influencers to me that gave me the inspiration to work hard, give it your best, treat people better than they deserve, and never complain. That's how you lived. Thank you.
To my mother's younger half brother's, my uncles, you taught me that trust begins within. Growing up, I spent a good part of every summer with you at your Mom's, my Grandmother's house. Age wise, you were more like older brothers. Even though I was many years younger, you always let me hangout with you, and we had a lot of fun swimming in the Spokane River, jumping into gigantic sand pits, and hiking through the forests of northern Idaho, picking wild berries. One of your mind games was since you were faster runners, you would leave me alone in the middle of the forest to see how I would react. The first time was traumatic, but you told me I should always know where I am, how I got there, where I am going, and how to at least get back to where I started. After that, when you played the game and saw that I knew the answers to what you trying to teach me, you stopped playing the game. Thanks...lesson well learned. Because of you, even though I've circled the globe on a multi year journey, been to countries that don't even exist any more, transversed the continent many times north, south, east, and west, have been numerous times in the wilderness, I've never been lost, even though my Mom has said when we were in Ireland together that I was "temporarily misplaced". So yes, it has occurred many times I am in a place I have never been, but because of you, I have always known how I got there, and positionally where I am within the context of where I want to end up. So I always have the security of knowing how to reverse course to get to where I was, it is even more fun to be the adventurer, and extrapolate the imagination to the desired destination, and proceed through the unknown.
