The World is Going to Keep Right on Turning

I mentioned in another post that my dad was an orthodontist. He was also a
rancher. That seems like a strange combination, but he made it work beautifully. I
was helping him work cattle one day when I was about ten and working cattle isn’t
easy, in case you’ve never done it. I made a mistake that caused a small calf to die
near the end of the day. I sat down and started to cry. My dad sat down next to
me, put his arm around me and said these words:

“You know I’d sit here and cry a river of tears if it would bring that calf back, but it
won’t. I do know one thing. Tomorrow the sun will come up in the east and the
world is going to keep right on turning.”

I remember it like it was yesterday. He was letting me off the hook for my mistake
and that helped me feel better. More importantly, he was teaching me a lesson
on keeping things in their proper perspective. It’s been the most important lesson
of my life.

Ranch work is tough, even on a good day. Unexpected events are frequent
visitors. Mistakes are as familiar as your best friend’s face. My dad had high
standards, but he never expected life to be perfect. Where did he get this
wisdom?

Born in 1923, he was about seven when the great depression hit. He spent his
childhood in the South Dakota dustbowl. He almost died three time before he was
a teenager. He was hit by a car, had small pox, and got a massive infection from a
botched operation. His present for graduating high school was going into World
War II. I guess all that will help you take the rest of life’s disappointments in
stride.

He used this saying with me often, but he wasn’t making light of whatever I was
going through. He was trying to take the pressure off of me by showing me a
different way of look at things. He was saying, it’s not all about how I want things
to be. The universe doesn’t revolve around that. No matter what happens the
world will continue as it was made to.

Relieving some of the weight of life from my shoulders was a tremendous gift. It is
now part of who I am. In Why Take a Chance When You Have a Cinch, I explained
how he taught me to get things right the first time by being thorough. That
eliminated most of life’s problems for me. Knowing the world is going to keep
right on turning has helped me withstand the things beyond my control. That
takes care of almost every situation I can imagine.

He didn’t just tell me these things, he lived them too. I saw countless examples
over the years. They were even part of his passing. He had Parkinson’s disease for
many years and never complained. Then he was diagnosed with kidney cancer
and needed surgery. I walked with him as they wheeled him back for the
operation on a gurney. He looked up at me when I could no longer walk with him
and said the words I knew were coming. “The world is going to keep right on
turning.”

He died a couple weeks later from an infection. We were with him as he took his
last breath. At that moment I looked out of the hospital window to see the sun
peaking above the horizon. He died just as the sun was coming up in the east. The
world was indeed still turning. Life has never been the same without him, but his
words are stitched inside my soul. I know no matter what happens, the world is
going to keep right on turning and that makes all the difference.

May you have enough today one moment at a time.