I was thinking who have been my sources of inspiration in my life.
I want to talk about people like Albert Schweitzer, Gandhi and the likes,
but I can not write about them as sources of inspiration without first
talking about the truly biggest sources of inspiration, yes,
of course, like for so many of us: my mother, and my father
Each of them teaching me different things.
I think my mom was the most caring person I have known in my whole life.
She was simply there, knew what we liked, and what we did not like.
While this may sound like a cliche, I mean this with my whole heart:
she was the most lovely person a child could wish as a mom.
Now she is not any longer with us. She passed on in 1995
But her care and her love somehow are still alive in my heart and soul.
I think it is her care that I transfer to my patients.
I think it is her goodness that lives on and multiplies.
My father was a businessman. He owned a printing house.
He had started from scratch and made it, really made in the business world.
He was a man with wisdom
He was a man of persistence and hard work
He was a man of openness
A tough facade with a super-soft heart inside
I do not know which part of him lives on most in me,
but so often I see myself acting like him.
Thanks, my mom and dad, for being such a huge source of inspiration.
The devotion and calmness of my grandfather was another source of inspiration
Quite often I think back about him. He was one of these persons,
whom you wanted really to be proud of you.
Of course, there are my other family members. I love them dearly without them I would not be who I am. Definitely, without my sister, I would have missed so many things in life. We did not quarrel too often; she was 2 years older and was my stronger companion.
This post was actually intended to be about famous people in my life who really made a difference in my thinking.
But before that, one person, I remember, who had a great influence on my thinking was "deken Ryckaert" I am not even sure anymore about the spelling of his name, but he was a bright thinker himself. He was the deacon in our village and came to our small village primary school a few times per year to talk to us about God. I remember him so much saying: 'Is God sitting on a golden or silver throne?' All of us thought of gold. He disagreed: 'God has no Throne'. Then he went on about the clothes of God and the answer again was that God has no clothes. We were really learning the abstract nature of God. But the most important thing he taught us/me was to think during our prayers. He said "So many people are just uttering words they memorized, without giving them any thought. If we do that, our prayer is pretty useless. While we pray, we have to think, about what we say, and what it means to us, to God. At that time I was saying many prayers every night. Thinking slowed me down tremendously. Instead of reciting twenty prayers, I hardly finished one. But I had truly prayed that one with heart and soul rather than merely recited. The impact-on and meaning-for my life of that one prayer with thoughts were like 10,000 times bigger. Ever since, reflection and thoughtful prayer has been my guide, my companion, my light, my 'consoler', my inspiration.
It is a bit strange: I wanted really to write this piece about people like Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi, Ralph Waldo Emerson and of course all prophets and my religion.
But I ended up writing about my truest sources of inspiration and as I wrote more and more people crossed my mind.
I will stop here and enjoy a bit more the memories of all these people who were close to me and truly inspired me. I will write about the more famous ones in a later post. In the mean time, I invite you to think and reflect a bit about the people who truly inspired you. It is a pleasant thing to do 👌😊. I wish you wonderful reflection
Hans is wishing you the very best
Peace!
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PS: most people most likely know Gandhi, ML King Jr and Emerson. If you do not know Albert Schweitzer, here is a
link to a website dedicated to him.