Keep focused on
helping others  
 
 
No exercise is better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up! I recently came across this profound short but impactful saying, and it keeps rotating in my mind. So, I sat down to write this column on Saturday, November 19, 2022, giving what is going on in the world lots of thought. Also, what is happening in the farming world that I continue to write about and serve faithfully.  
And let me preference this, I’m not planning to go anywhere except to Maple Ridge, BC to visit my daughter Lynn and her family around Christmas. Yet, looking at the changes in farming techniques and practices, technology, consolidation, and making food in the laboratory makes me think back to when my father helped out a neighbour’s boy looking for a job. His name is Ernie; he shared this story with me recently.  
Ernie was driving down the dike road when he saw my father stop to fill up the drill with seed grain, most likely peas. The long and short of it was that dad took the time to listen to a young boy looking for help and recognition. Before long Ernie was working for my father helping on the farm.  
My father, Henry C. Siemens was always in good shape physically and financially and willing to lift another person in time of need or to encourage. He did that to Ernie; he did that to me and many others. 
There are so many issues that keep rotating around farming, fertilizer use, hog, cattle, poultry and sheep production that I have to be careful I don’t take off and rant on any given two, three or five every day.  
My late wife Judith used to monitor my Twitter responses since 2008 when I posted my first tweet. I waged many battles, which at the end of the day and sometimes sooner asked me why and where I was going this time. I refrain from those battles because you are never sure who is behind that Twitter handle. My goal is to ask questions, remain factual and most importantly encourage, encourage, and encourage.  
We are less than a month away from celebrating Christmas, the Birth of God’s only begotten son. Therefore, it is most important that in this wild and willy field of post-COVID and maybe not, a war market that none of us have experienced, I remain focused on remaining positive and willing to lift myself and that other needy person. 
Former president of Toastmasters International Erick Stuhlmueller and a personal friend used a story like this to wrap up his presentations. Eric became the president of Toastmasters International in 1980 and helped charter The Sunflower Toastmasters club in Altona, MB in 1973. He was instrumental in encouraging me to get out and speak.   
Build A Better You! 
Long ago, a wise man said: “God said to build a better world.” 
I said, “How? The world is such a dark and lonely place, and I’m so small and useless; there is nothing I can do.” But God, in all His wisdom, said, “Just build a better you.” 
The theme of his presidential speech in Minneapolis in 1980 was “Belong, Participate and Succeed.” He often said, “Shoot for the moon – If you miss – You’ll still land in the stars.”  
The shepherds and the wise men followed the Star of Bethlehem and took them to where the Baby Jesus lay; they worshiped Him, turned around and took another path home, telling what they had just witnessed.  
No exercise is better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up! So I thank those people, men, women and children who took the time to lift me. Thank you very much. •