By Miles Patrick Yohnke
© 2010 All Rights Reserved.
This is a story about my beautiful brother. He is very private and humble. With respect to him, I shall not give his name. Realistically, that is not important. What is important though, is the message and the lessons I have learned from his example.
My brother has had a very challenging life yet carries himself with a beautiful spirit and grace. He has endless patience, an eccentric sense of humour, cast-iron reliability and a massive heart that does not distinguish between the needs of one person and the next. His love knows no hesitation, no start and no finish. For relaxation he has an abundant love for the lake and his cabin.
He's had a very long successful career. A beautiful, loving, and vibrant thirty-five-year marriage and counting, and he and his wife have raised three beautiful children that carry the same values their parents instilled upon them.
Our society likes to have "special days," as in birthdays and such, though he hasn't had much participation in this. Maybe for others, not for himself. His 40th came and went. So did his 50th. "With no need to celebrate," as he says.
Each day he goes on in a gentle way. Doing and helping others.
Each day of his life is a celebration.
There is a film titled: "Peaceful Warrior," the story of the life of Dan Millman. In one scene, Millman is seeking the advice of this older man, his mentor. Millman wants to learn from him but gets frustrated that he isn't learning at the pace he would like. He then questions his mentor. Perhaps his mentor isn't right? In fact, he works at a gas station. Hardly a respected job to some. His life perhaps doesn't look that grandiose in society's eyes.
The mentor replied: "Serve others. There is no higher purpose."
Later in the film the man (the mentor) was gone, and the station had changed hands. It had been a full-service station before and was now a self-serve. That example of full service was now gone forever and a piece of it through that attendant (the mentor) was lost.
In a world that is more or less a self-serving one, my brother has never been one to not serve. He's always placed others before himself. He's always been there for everyone, and he's always made time for each person. Just as that gas attendant did.
Some time ago I was asked: "Miles, why do you love cycling so much?" At the time I really didn't have an answer, or the correct one. Shortly after, I realized it was because of my brother. From him I have learned by his example. He has always left behind a real hard statement as a legacy in everything he has ever done. That's just his way.
I was six, perhaps seven, and had just learnt to ride a bike. Weeks later he (then fifteen or sixteen) said: "We are cycling to Grandma and Grandpa's." From Greystone Heights to Richmond Heights. Down a busy College Drive, over a bridge and a river. Six miles each way. A Thursday night. My mind was racing.
Fear. Excitement. I still remember to this day all those emotions. I remember I must keep up to him and also at the same time not to fall over. And my little legs turned those pedals. We made it safe. My first hard statement from him!
All my life, he has been teaching me life lessons.
He has followed the words of E. E. Cummings:
"To be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you like everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting."
My brother. The Peaceful Warrior.
This is dedicated to you.
You are the Blueprint of a Man.
You are my Blueprint of a Man.
Love,
Brother Miles
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