Mentors

I am behind on my reading.  I just came across a great post in the Cafe on mentors.  It's a great tribute to the mentors the writer gave appreciation for.

Have we all not had great mentors in our life?  I surely have.  Did we use them to their ability to help us?

I have so many areas of interest in my life I've been blessed with many great mentors.

My Sunday school teacher Mrs. Yockey, my 4th grade teacher Mrs. Alexander, my dear dad, so many great mentors in my life who helped me shape my future.  All my school teachers had impact on me as well as all my farming, teaching and spiritual mentors.

I was blessed to have dad for over 50 years so I had him in my life the longest.  He's probably had more effect on me than anyone else.  It's been 11 years now since we last spoke physically but everything I do for the good, I learned from him.

He was the greatest man of patience, I am impatient.  His personality was received everywhere, mine isn't.  He was rarely rejected, I have been all my life and there is good reason for that.  He only embellished a little bit, I mastered that.

It was always an honor to be called "Bucky's boy," but boy where those big shoes to walk in!  I couldn't, so I left my own footprints.  I still keep his principles first though.

He was always happy.  If he wasn't, you couldn't tell unless you pried.  Still you never would have thought much of it.  He just loved to work, be outdoors and farm.  He loved kids and raised us well.  He was just a great big kid, now that is a trait I got a little more honestly.

Paul Reed showed me how to notill.  Keith Schlapkohl showed me how to increase crop growth on a budget.  Dad showed me how to live life.  I struggled at times but that geneology and that kind of living has gotten me through the years.

Who has been the mentors of your life?  If it was your mother or father, you are blessed.  I don't hear that many people say either one was.  Who needs to mentor you on your next problem you are working on?

Ed Winkle