Pick a road and stay the course
2019 was undoubtedly a year with many and extended mixed blessings. Having attended various producer meetings and conventions in the last three months, dairy, pigs, and more accurately kept informed via the president of the Manitoba Beef Producers, all expressed challenges having to do with the weather and trade. In the case of cattle, it is feed and regulation changes to the crown land leases.
Throw in two elections into that mix, provincially and federally; writing and talking about farming became even more exciting.
I’m not going to rehash what has or hasn’t happened because we need to focus on our plans for next year.
In 1986, with my career at a crossroads, I developed a motto that I used in every speech I gave, including many communication seminars from 1986 through 2007. First, the motto and it goes like this: A positive mental attitude, to encourage and serve others will motivate me to do my best. More recently, I added to this mix, to inspire others.
With elections, impeachments, political shortcomings, and many who want to destroy production agriculture as we know it today believe you me – we need direction in many cases, encouragement, and inspiration.
When my wife Judith passed on to Glory on May 18, 2018, I hit another crossroads. What comes to mind is Alice in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ coming to a crossroads, and she asks the ‘Cat’ which way must I turn? Cat asks where do you want to go? Alice says I don’t know, well said Cat, then it doesn’t matter.
Two days after the funeral, I decided to get back to work, which then gave me reason and purpose because I knew I must travel on. It was a great decision because 19 months later, I’m still travelling on that same path – only almost two years older. Things aren’t without pain, heartache, and tears, but life is most certainly worth living as I travel down this path.
I’m sharing this because farmers everywhere are facing some challenges, and some that may even seem impossible, seek a friend’s help, share with your spouse, talk to people who are there to listen, and in some cases, advice. I wrote this on Saturday morning, and several things happened. On Friday morning, my choir colleague Ernie stopped by to visit, listen, and share. What a blessing and oh, so timely. Yep… Sometimes that is all it takes, a word of encouragement.
Next, a tweet crosses my desk. Hard time of year for a lot of folks. We can all help prevent suicide. Here is the Suicide Hotline: with numbers attached asking for retweets. I retweeted and said, I added my telephone number to the list. Most people may think, oh, that is a silly thing to do. Well, several retweeted my tweet, and I’m prepared to take a call.
Farmers make up less than two percent of the total population, and I liked what David Wiens, a dairy farmer from Grunthal and chair of the Dairy Farmers of Manitoba, said about one of the concerns he has as part of the farming sector. A great thought, in my opinion, and I never quite thought of it that way.
“Because when you have a whole new generation of people that are, that get their information from where they do, most often from friends or the internet, they are the future decision-makers in the country,” he said. “We have to show how we benefit the environment, that our carbon footprint isn’t what some would put it out to be. We must explain that to people, so they understand that the dairy industry, even, and we need to work with other livestock groups too, where we are contributing to the benefit of the environment.”
Yes, all kinds of issues, but if we don’t know where we stand, and what makes us tick, then the so-called negative things happening in some case to us, around us, and whether far or near, make us go off the deep end. I’m telling you, I may not have all the answers, but I will first off listen, care, and help where I can. In the truest sense of the season, I wish you a belated Merry Christmas, a great 2020, and may the Christ of Christmas who sustains me year-round do the same for you. •