Humility

As the New Year arrives, it's a great time to start thinking about the importance of what we do in life. Every year brings a fresh new discovery to mind. We all start thinking about bright new ideas and projects that can enhance our lives! Why not think about what values we have to offer this new year?

One core value that I have learned about this past year is humility. Hu-mil-i-ty {hyoo-mil-i-tee}, by definition, is "the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance, rank, etc.". By definition, humility is the expression of being not proud or arrogant; of being modest; courteously respectful. Something I want to strive for in 2010.

Humility is something that I see heroes as having. My hero is my father. It was with humility, this past October, he accepted the Presidential Unit Citation by our United States President, Barack Obama. It was with humility my father triumphed over his teen years without a father. It was with humility my father has banished the inner-most temptations of drugs and alcohol that are everpresent, and had endured in his past. It was with humility my father overcame his own prejudice through life's more recent events. It's with humility my father loves so deeply that every time we separate ~ his eyes well-up with tears.

This past November I got married. Ever since I've been with my husband; even pre-marriage, my father has given us advice and carried on with my husband in a way that only a father and son can do. My father never had a son; my husband, never a father; but it is through humility my husband has become my father's son. It is with profound humility my father gives us both the most amazingly wise advice with regards to our relations with each other. My father will turn 62 this spring, and looks not a day past 40. I believe in my heart that humility has kept him young. Wisdom, however, is what will guide him through the next stage of his life. Because I now see how his humility is becoming his wisdom. I must say, that through everything we have been through as a family ~ and everything HE has been through as my father. He is truly a hero. My wish for 2010 is that as my hero's humility becomes his wisdom, that humility will be relinquished in me.