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Helping Hands

May 21, 2014

By Tineke Ziemer

May 22^nd, 2014

behind the scenes

My husband, Len, is a ‘behind the scenes’ kind of guy. You’ll certainly never find him trying to be the centre of attention or taking credit for anything. He’s quiet, thoughtful, and humble.
(3 qualities that are not likely to be used to describe his wife!)

People in our lives tend to give me a lot of credit because I’m the ‘out front’ person in all of our endeavours;
the one who gets to live the dream, take the spotlight and stand in front of the group telling them what to do!
(Len can attest to my innate ability to boss people around.)

But those who know us well know that Len is the foundation of our relationship, the one who makes things happen in his steadfast, reliable way. He’s the one who sets up workshops, creates websites, helps students with technical difficulties and researches equipment. He lets me bounce ideas off of him even though he knows that nine times out of ten I’ll not take his advice anyway. He keeps me strong and supports me in a way that allows my
creativity to abound.

He’s also like that in life. He’s the one people know they can call if they need help. He’ll drop everything to give someone a hand, even when he can’t stay caught up on the work at home. He’ll come home from working all day at the mill and get to work building me a fence, planting our garden or one of the
million others things I have on his to-do list.

He never complains. In fact, helping others brings him happiness. That’s kind of his niche in life. He doesn’t do much for himself, but he says that he doesn’t need to. He’s happy when he sees others happy.

What a gift he is to me. How thankful I am that I chose to marry this man who is such an excellent example to our children and who strives to make me (the unpleasable one) so happy. Even though I constantly find more for him to do, and it seems to him like I’m never satisfied, the truth is, I regularly thank my lucky stars (and God above) that I have this man in my life!

Thought for the Day

The people in our lives are true gifts. The time they give, the ways they enrich us - it’s not something we ought to discredit. Every day with our family is another one to be grateful for.