Laura Holck in her blog today remembers her Uncle Mike. He always put others first. “He gave away his connections and his time and his expertise. He gave his very self,” she says. His life wasn’t about himself but rather about others.
Are you lucky enough to know someone like Mike?
My grandparents were both like Laura's Uncle Mike. If they had ever been means tested, they would have been classified as in poverty. You would never know that by the way they lived. Nobody could visit them without receiving a gift to take away. Nobody could get sick without receiving a charming visit and some fresh, homemade soup from my grandmother. My grandfather fixed fishing boats and fishing rods and taught generations of young boys how to fish and enjoy life on the river. He made and gave away all sorts of wooden items -- boat paddles, birdhouses and so forth -- for the sheer love of people and the joy of using his gift. He inspired one of his grandsons to become an artist in wood. My grandparents never knew they were poor, and everybody who ever knew them felt in their debt because they were so generous with themselves and their possessions. I wish I had half the loving spirit they lived out daily.