GRATITUDExMILLION

Joseph Geiser

Ontario, Canada

Our parents are our first teachers and as such have the potential to have the greatest impact on our lives as children and probably most importantly as adults – even well after they have physically left us. I am especially grateful for life’s lessons that I learned from my parents in shaping the person I am. These lessons were not taught through lengthy conversations over the dinner table or through bedtime stories. Living on a farm with six children didn’t afford us the luxury of spending such ‘quality’ time with our parents. However, it was the lessons of integrity, loyalty, honesty, faith, commitment, will power and most importantly unconditional love through the most adverse situations that shaped the person that I have become and continue to be. As I reflect on those challenging times and how these qualities that our parents consistently demonstrated through throughout their lives  carried our family through them, I am in awe of how they did it.   The words of Clarence B. Kelland are equally applicable to both my dad and mom – “My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.” I can never appropriately express the gratitude and love that I have for my parents and the invaluable lessons I learned from watching them live their lives.