I just returned from a business trip in Arizona. I belong to a group of business people (there are about 25 of us) from a really varied cross section walk of life (everything from a man who gives dating advise, to a fertility expert, to a catholic priest!). Although most of the group is based in the USA, many of us fly in from various corners of the world; Hungry, France, Brazil, the UK, Australia of course myself coming from Canada:). Amazing people and they all are so inspiring to me.
The first night of our get together we all went out for dinner. Although we were in a larger group, we all sat in small tables of 6 or so. Knowing I was sitting with a group of pretty outstanding individuals I asked the question;
“Who is the most inspiring person you have ever met/spent time with during your lifetime?”
So the conversation was really interesting; it included an encounter with Tony Robbins, as well as other celebrity types. Then one of my peeps tells us all about twice having a chance encounter with Mother Teresa (and no, this was not the guy who is a Catholic priest either). It was the most unbelievable story I have ever heard, of course the game pretty well ended after Philip told his story, I mean how do you top Mother Teresa?
It was so much fun to listen to people share moments of their lives that were filled with such inspiration.
So what about you guys; don’t think “famous” just think of “special” what is the most inspiring thing you have every witnessed or been a part of?
Today, on my big sista’s birthday (Happy Birthday Vicki:)) I am thankful for the amazing spirit of sharing from the cool people in my business group.
My family inspire me every Christmas. My husband is one of eight children. Years ago we decided to stop giving each other Christmas presents when we all got together for our ‘Curran Christmas’. Instead, each year one family picks a charity and spends much time and effort in presenting the charity to the family. It is the highlight of our Christmas every year.
My husbands mom passed away much too young and was a sweet, gentle, kind soul who loved her children and everyone else’s! So we try to pick charity’s where families and children benefit the most and all donations are made in her honour.
Between the 8 siblings, their spouses, their children and their children’s spouses, there are over fifty of us and last year we raised over $12,000 for Smile Train where we will be helping to pay for at least 11 surgery’s that will change lives.
The year before we helped an organisation that aided Teenage mothers continue with high school by caring for their young.
We have helped a family who lost a young son with a brain tumour pay for medical expenses and so on and so on.
Every year we get updates from the various people we have helped and that indeed is the best gift we could have!
So, my huge, wonderful, kind amazing family inspire me with not only the love they all share for each other but also to those they don’t know.
The Hot Team (Dick and Rick) story about fathers love and tenacity.
@Natalia I love them!!! For anyone that hasn’t “Team Hoyt” this is a MUST WATCH video. I was so blessed to have it sent to me the morning I was to step foot onto my first FCI World Championships (thank you Neta) and I still watch it before big events.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flRvsO8m_KI
Hi Susan! Did you read their book: “Devoted”? Highly recommended :))
Back in my running days I was lucky enough to see the Hoyts at races in my area frequently. They are definitely something special.
Wow! What a great blog topic. My inspiration is non-dog related and may be a bit obscure for some. I am a naturopath and I work for a natural health company in Australia that was founded by an incredibly talented and passionate pioneer in our industry. His name is Kerry Bone and while you’ve probably not heard of him, he is internationally regarded as an expert in herbal medicine. He was originally a research scientist and has an IQ that is through the roof. He studied herbal medicine in the UK and then set about combining his scientific knowledge and passion for herbal medicine to develop manufacturing techniques that have revolutionised the herbal medicine industry. He has written 6 text books on herbal medicine that are used at naturopathic colleges around the world, regularly contributes to peer-review journals around the world, been a co-author on hundreds of scientific papers, developed a Masters program in herbal medicine in conjunction with a university here in Australia as well as a post-graduate program for health professionals. In addition he still maintains a very successful clinical practice seeing about 80 patients a week. It is my privilege to work with him on a daily basis. What inspires me about Kerry (and many other great people) is how incredibly humble, down to earth and generous he is despite his amazing achievements. He has the sort of intellect that could have made him great in a range of (more lucrative!) areas, but he chose herbal medicine in order to heal people and improve their quality of life, which I find very inspirational.
My most inspiring moment was when I was young (around 6 years old) we lived on a lake and it was winter. There was a momma dog franticly running up and down our seawall barking, my father went outside to see what the problem was, and saw 6 puppies stumbling across the very thin ice that was covering the lake. He called for me and my mom to come out and ran to gather a handful of boards from the garage. My father laid them out across the ice so that he could get out to the puppies and distribute his weight more evenly. He walked out and gathered each puppy up, he brought them one by one to my mother who then instructed me to take them inside and rub them until they were warm, with the towels she had pulled out. I rubbed the puppies one by one and got them as warm as I could; we used a brown box to put them in and covered them with blankets.
At this point the mother Labrador was in the house with me as I warmed her pups and was licking them and seemed to be counting that they were all there. My dad came inside and we packed everyone up into our van and headed to our neighbors until someone knew where the dogs had come from. We went down a few miles and found the home where they lived. The family was overjoyed and had been looking for them as well, apparently someone had left the gate opened and not noticed them wandering out.
I was told that we saved every puppy; none had been lost that day! It was quite amazing that the dogs had gotten across a two lane highway without being hit, that the puppies had run on the ice without falling in, and that my father and mother set aside their own safety to save these little ones that day.
For me, this was the day my parents became my heroes and the day which has colored my life with dogs and rescue since. This was the first thing I thought of when you asked for the most inspiring and/or special thing we have witnessed or been a part of. While I have had many other very important events in my life, this one I believe stands out because of the impact such an event had on me at such a young age.
Thanks for asking us to consider this question it has warmed my heart to remember this moment and honor my parents today.
WOW! What an awesome and amazing story!!! Thanks for telling it!
Susan
I think you might qualify for this.You have certainly inspired many people ( including me)
I’m sure many would agree.
I do! Recallers course in the summer was so inspiring not only the content but to be surrounded by people always willing to go that extra mile , to give that bit more of themselves to help others. The group was led by a star, but there were heaps of little twinkling stars surrounding and supporting her as far as I am concerned.
I second you on that Veronica!
Susan, you definitely inspire people. Those who see read your works, follow your blog, see you runs or catch a brief encounter on the sidelines of a trial.
You make people want to have a better, stronger and clearer relationship with their dogs… that’s priceless!
…interested to know what was your reply?