My Father - Dad

"It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons." - Johann Friedrich von Schiller

Today is celebrated as Father's Day in the United States and in many different countries around the world at various times of the year. A day when we as men can acknowledge that we can be pretty amazing people in the raising, providing for and protecting our families.

As with any population set there will be those who just didn't get the letter or learn how to properly be a man in this world. And there are varying degrees of our effectiveness. On the whole I think we do pretty well with what biology, evolution and what I believe God provided us with.

There is a man that I will miss for the first time this year. My father William "Bill" Primm passed away on February 17 of this year. An 86-year old man who was a son many years ago, a husband for many more and of course a father to seven children.

My article will not say anything new that a child might say of their father. I had my disagreements and my disappointments in him. I know that he had his own disagreements and disappointments in me. But what we had more of are the proud accomplishments, laughter, respect and love of each other.

He grew up in a broken home and raised by an aunt and her husband on a farm in the southeast farm fields of South Dakota. He worked the horses, the fields and also had his share of mischievousness. He worked hard, made it through high school even playing the trumpet in the school band.

He then met Rose Marie Gale, our mother.

There is much to be said about how he accomplished the role of fatherhood and in raising a family. My parents are together in whatever heaven is to them, but while they were with us here in the natural it worked well. I learned so much from my father I can not begin to explain it.

All that I can do was either taught, encouraged or drilled into me with the hope that it would make me a more successful person in life. It did not always sit well with me. Some of it irritated me quite frankly. Yet I can sit here to day and know that much of who I am, what I do, how I accomplish things are due to my father.

My father William "Bill" Primm, or in my own words Dad.

Thank you for the many years. I am very proud to call you my father and love you with all my heart. Just do me a favor and give Mom a hug for me along with John and Patty. Quite possibly gone from my sight but none of you are gone from my heart.

Happy Father's Day to you Dad and to all of you Dad's out there.

Stay inspired my friends!

Memorial Day 2017

"It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle." - H. Norman Schwarzkopf

It is the young who are sent to fight the battles of old men. To those young men and women we remember their ultimate sacrifice and say thank you.

Stay inspired my friends!

The Guest House

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” ― Oscar Wilde

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, popularly known as Rumi, was a 13th-century poet, jurist, scholar, and theologian. The following poem titled The Guest House explores the idea that all of our existence is of great value. All of the varying emotions, events and experience are valuable and should not be pushed aside as unnecessary or avoidable. Everything that touches our lives has meaning and value and should be embraced for either the good, bad or indifference they bring.

In short, it is the entirety of our lives.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

- Rumi

Stay inspired my friends!

Surprise The World - Surprise Yourself

"Man is always more than he can know of himself; consequently, his accomplishments, time and again, will come as a surprise to him."
- Golo Mann

Day in and day out, we go about our lives performing many of the same tasks required of daily living. We become so used to it that everything we do seems ordinary.

The thing is, you are not ordinary.

You are an amazing creation that can do surprising things with your life.

The act of performing your job to the best of your ability is not ordinary. Anyone can just show up to a job. But you go beyond and put great skill and effort into making your work the best one can produce.

The act of having a committed relationship with another person. You take great care in nurturing and serving that connection. You do not simply take but you give so the relationship grows and strengthens.

You are not ordinary.

The act of raising children is huge and you understand it as such. You are creating and building a great life for them so that they are strong and ready for the world that lay before them.

The act of helping and serving others in the community. You understand that when you give, much is returned tenfold to you. Having a strong and vital community around you creates a better life for all.

So you see, you are not ordinary.

You have the ability within you to create great surprise in other people with what you can accomplish. That ability makes you more than ordinary.

Go out and surprise the world.

And stay inspired my friends!