A woman I knew that was educated and raised on a farm told me of her father. This man worked the farm from 4 am till it was time to drive a school bus for the morning. Then he would return home, work plowing the fields and planting, stop after lunch, go back to the bus to take the kids home. Return home to the farm and work till 9 pm, go to bed, get up again the next day and do it all over every year of his life.
One by one each child left the farm and went to college to find their own life and never returned to the farm. The discipline of this simple life this farmer lived never veering from his duty and care has always inspired me. He did not do it for great monetary gain because there was none. He did it because it was all he knew to do to live and provide.
Maybe his kids had other opportunities because of his hard work, but they learned how to work hard for what they wanted away from the farm because of his example.
One thing I have always known, I do not run on feelings, I get up and move because it is the right thing to do. This world does not owe me, I owe to myself to become the "me" I want to be. To do this I have to move forward. I think of this nameless farmer whenever I do not want to get out of bed on a work day and I am thankful. Married to a former farm boy, I see his work ethic is sterling. When something needs to be done, he moves.
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