Who Am I

 

 
 

     An easy goal is a worthless one, for it is not the goal but the struggle to attain it that builds character. It is not the great acts of kindness as much as the little everyday ones that make up our lives. Like ripples on a pond, our existence affects others all around us. We should strive to be an uplifting influence on others, and thereby ourselves.
     Blessed is he who dreams dreams and is willing to pay the price to see them come true. For the prison wherein we must abide is the restrictions we place upon ourselves. It can be as small as ourselves or as great as the Universe. Each person is master of their own destiny.
     Honour is that which encompasses all that is good in Mankind. Each act of honesty, kindness, charity or compassion is honour. Family and home, these are the things worth fighting for, worth sacrificing for, worth dying for. There is no shame in feeling fear, for true courage is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to procede in spite of it. Nor is nobility a birthright, but is defined by ones' actions. We must strive to be honest, gentle, generous, brave, wise and possessing all these qualities, exercise them in the most graceful, outward manner.
     Survival at any price is no more than abject submission. Personal fate means little when compared to the legacy passed on to our children. We must never shrink from commitment to honour and devotion to home and family.
 
     Though I fall far short of these goals, the quest for them is who I am.
 
 

For my wife:

     Who am I? I am a simple man who has grown to treasure the times he gets to spend with his family. I get to spend so little time with them every moment is precious to me. I am a husband whose wife is his strength and the foundation of his life. She is the partner who is essential to his being. I have a son, my pride and joy. He has grown up to be a fine young man now and I have been able to spend such little time with him. To provide for my family a few of those things a man feels necessary for his family, it has cost me dearly in the time spent with them. We have tried to make the best of the hand the Fates have dealt us.
My life away from my family has taken me many places across this land and I have found that no matter where I go it is not until I set foot upon this sacred soil that I feel the warmth, the ease of coming home. A wave of peace breaks over me lifting from me all the burdens I had once borne as important. To simply be with my family fills me to overflowing with pleasant stillness, with peace. No matter how filled with "must do" things my time at home may be, that joy fills every fiber of my being.
 
So, who am I? I am just an ordinary man doing what he must to provide the best he can for those he loves.