Family of Dreams and Success

Why do people believe they can’t reach the goals in their lives?   I have to think they look around themselves and see what they think is real, which is not what is real.  In their minds they want something different than what they see.  When it comes down to the final vision, you have to want to see what does not seem real.  That is a goal, in my mind.  A goal you believe and can’t see, but which is real, if you want it bad enough.

As I have said, I grew up with no running water or electricity.  I had a vision to play baseball for a professional team.  This was a goal, dream or vision I do not know.  I grew up in a place where there was no baseball.  My brother’s dreams were completely different than mine.  We never talked about where we would be in twenty years.  We lived each day and loved every day we lived. 

Now you have to know, yes we finally had running water and electricity.  Yes we went to school and grew up with our dreams.  I had three brothers and one sister.  We finally lived in a two bedroom six hundred square foot home.  My granddad retired and moved into a small town and I personally went to his house every spare day I could.  When he moved he had running water and electricity.  So I was in the world of Kings when I was at home or at my granddads.  I centered my life around two thoughts in my life.  First and most important was baseball and the second was going to my granddad’s and going fishing.

My brothers were different in their interests.  Remember we all grew up with nothing.  We were now growing up and getting a few luxuries, which I loved.  My dad worked two jobs.  His second job was rebuilding pianos.  All five kids had to work at his second job.  When he needed us to work, we worked hard and he was a perfectionist.  So, yes we grew up all being perfectionist.  No room for error, none.

I still had one dream.  Play professional baseball.  Every day it was possible I played baseball.  I hoped others would play but if not, I played ball by myself.  I worked on every aspect of baseball from the time I can remember to the age of 24 years old.  I never had any other thought except signing that contract to play baseball for some professional team.  That was my dream.  Coming from nothing, to play baseball is a dream.  That was a dream which many of thousands of kids dreamed of everyday.

Well, let’s look at my brothers and sister lives for a second.  They had some kind of dreams which I never knew, because I didn’t care about their dreams.  Really who cared what my brother was going to be as long as I reached my dream.  I think I was selfish, but I only thought about my dreams. 

When I look back and see the house which we grew up in with nothing except what was needed.  What we grew in the garden, hunted, and fished to eat, and some small items like flour and sugar from the store.  I can’t believe what I am getting ready to tell you. 

I believe the human is made up five parts which we can define.  Physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual and the last is what I call the UNKNOWN.  The four we can seem to have a little control are so important to make life worth living.  To explain the unknown is impossible for me.  I have tried for 40 years to figure out the unknown.  The following examples will show what the unknown is to me.  I do not have the answers, I just think about the unknown.

My oldest brother was married at 18 years old.  He had four kids and always lived in rural areas of Oklahoma.  He started working as a Natural Gas Contractor.  He worked hard, very, very hard every day.  You have to understand, when he laid gas lines, you had no machine to dig the dirt.  You would dig dirt to lay gas lines with a shovel and you’re body.  He would lay lines up to 75 yards long.  My brother and his partner would dig and lay these lines for all types of different reasons.  Gas lights, swimming pools, fire places, or just out door grills.  My brother made well over a million dollars doing this work and founding his own business.  Impossible most would say.  When in my mind, I see us running down the hill into the canyon at 6 years old.  How did he get from nothing to being able to be where he is today? 

My next brother was still different from all of us in the family.  He loved to invent and build.  He was so cool to have as a brother because I always won the Science Fairs at school.  Every year I would come home and ask him what he thought?  The next day he would say we going to build this or that.  I would stand by him as he built electric motors to power windmills, out of just copper wire and some solar panels.  I would take it to school not knowing how it worked and there was the blue ribbon on the project for three years in a row.  I was amazed at his knowledge but always treated him as a nerd.  He finished college and was an engineer for Boeing Aeronautics 32 years before he died.  Now, tell me you can’t do anything you want!  Yes, we ran over that same hill down into the canyon:  We had nothing, remember.  Here was a man who reached his dreams.  From a home where his real father left him the day he was born.  My older two brothers were my so called half-brothers.  There was NOTHING half about either.  They were my brothers more than any man could ever have brothers.  When your father walks out of your life the day you are born, and where my brother finished his life, is one of the greatest achievements known to me, by any man.

My sister is younger than I.  She was always the princess of the family.  This makes me laugh as I am writing this about her.  She was born just in time to have running water and electricity.  She still had to help in the garden, fish, and work while she grew up in our home.  By the time she reached high school she was learning how to achieve life’s goals.  She worked hard in school and everybody I ever talked to said she was the nicest person, always with a smile and something good to say.  This one for me is the hardest to believe when I talk about my family.  She is an executive with CBS.  Yes the real television station CBS.  She worked for FOX and, CBS came to her wanting her to work for them in Dallas.  For my sister to achieve what she has, no one can tell me, they reach any dream if wanted.  If someone tells me I can’t reach my dreams, I would tell them, you don’t want it bad enough to make it where you want to be in your life.

Now, my little brother, he came along when nobody cared.  I am laughing as I write this.  My oldest brothers help him work his way through college.  I was working on my baseball career.  My sister was too busy making life for herself.  My younger brother was going to have to make it on his own.  He had to fight and scratch for every penny he could get to go through college.  He and his wife to be were going to be teachers.  Now I am really laughing.  His wife, yes a perfect teacher, my brother, no way.  He grew up in a strict, perfectionist environment.  We never as kids did anything except at 100% and when you finished it was perfect, or you did it over.  In college he majored in music.  He was and is a very talented musician. 

Over a few years he felt a calling to go into the ministry.  Ok, duh, you have to go back to school.  My youngest brother finished his degree in ministry and went on to receive a Master’s Degree in Religion and finally a PHD in Theology.  Wow, now tell me, I can’t.  Go ahead and tell me it’s not possible. 

My parents never had a penny except to feed, clothe, and put a roof over our heads.  Yet, all five of their kids reach magnificent goals in life.  My granddad and grandma had just enough to live a nice life.  Yet between all four of these glorious people, five kids took life to its fullest.  Remember the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.  Every one of us had all four of these to the fullest.  We had all four parts of the human, and this was given by God at birth.   Every human on this earth has all four of these parts!  Oh, we have one more child to talk about.  What about the baseball player and reaching his goal.  Let’s see what happened in the next blog. 

You have to understand, the UNKNOWN has not been talked about in this blog.  I will also tell you what I understand about the UNKNOWN.  It is a mystery to not only me, but I think to the world.  Till next time enjoy every moment trying to reach your dreams.