I found this posted on my friend Tedd Swartz’ Facebook page. I don’t know the origin of the story and that information wasn’t in the Facebook post, but I love it.

“There was a farmer who grew excellent quality corn.
Every year he won the award for the best grown corn.

One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors.

‘How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?’ the reporter asked.

‘Why sir,’ said the farmer, ‘Didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn.

If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.’

So it is with our lives…

Those who want to live meaningfully, and well, must help enrich the lives of others, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches.

And those who choose to be happy must help others find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all…”

A beautiful story of recognition of Unity and Oneness of all.

And it’s a perfect story for me and my neighborhood. All around me are farms. Not too far from where I live there are many, many acres of corn fields. I enjoy watching them grow all summer long. They’re beautiful.

I rent a house from a lovely couple who have a business right next door to the house. The other day they told me that some of their customers had seen my political lawn signs in the yard – which is next to their business – and they threatened to never return if the signs remained.

Life is interesting.

I can remember my Mother talking when I was a teenager and saying she very much disagreed with a political candidate, but she repeated the classic line, “I may not agree with them, but I would defend their right to say it.”

We had a neighbor who was running for political office and I asked my Mom if she would vote for him. She said that she wouldn’t be voting for him because they disagreed in their political views, but that didn’t mean she didn’t like having him as a neighbor.

We can agree to disagree, and we can work to maintain the right to free speech even for people we vehemently disagree with. To me, that’s one of the great things about America. Part of our original impetus was the ability to speak to truth to power, and to have no taxation without representation, but for some folks that’s been forgotten.

The importance of these values has been lost in the fomenting of the US vs THEM stances we see being fostered, fed and spread throughout these United States. And those of us who still carry these values in our heart, like my mother, we’ll always have an opportunity to stand for what’s best for all rather than the few.

And, as Dr. King so wisely taught us, when the time comes, and the person who appears to be opposing, who seems to count me as their enemy confronts me, that’s when I can remember that only Love heals hatred. Love is the only thing that has that power.

As A Course in Miracles students we’re taught that Love is what we are.

But if we’ve forgotten that, we might miss the opportunity to extend Love and compassion to those who’ve forgotten too, and we’ll miss the opportunity to be truly helpful. It’s okay if we do, another one will come along soon. On that we can depend.

Even though it’s my right to have the political lawn signs – they’re really in support of local people for local offices and don’t have any other message on them – I offered to take them down and my landlords said not to. They said that if they have customers that would threaten them like that over these simple signs, it’s okay, they can go elsewhere.

I appreciate their perspective. And I’d love to have the opportunity to have an honest conversation with anyone who feels so threatened by my simple sign to see what we can discover we have in common and end the appearance of division just because we have different political views.

What I appreciate so much is that I didn’t not feel angry or bothered by any of this. I didn’t feel a need to defend or attack which reminds me that I am deeply committed to being that loving space and that I’d rather choose Peace instead of arguing that I have a right to put up a sign.

There’s no competition – it’s an illusion. Competition assumes that there are different sides. I learned this a long time ago. When I first stepped up as a teacher of A Course in Miracles, I felt that some long established teachers of ACIM were afraid of me and saw me as their competition. If they had looked more closely, what I was doing was inviting them to the party I was organizing to share my resources and extend my support. That’s the ACIM way. “To have, give all to all.”

Love is always stronger than hate. Love is the ONLY Power. Hate has the ability to be forceful, but it can never truly be powerful. Teaching only Love is not only beautiful, it brings so many benefits to EVERYONE. And I love that.

When one is lifted, all are lifted. All boats rise on this tide of Love.

That means the people with 12 children as well as childless cat ladies and cat dudes too. And their cats are lifted too!

Today we have Sundays With Spirit and we’ll be offering a powerful message of Love in words and music. Our service is free, but you do have to register, so click now if you’re not already registered.

Let’s make a quantum leap together.  

If you’d like my help developing a spiritual practice of Self-care that clears out the old patterns of past beliefs in order to move out of the unconscious guilt and punishing yourself, blaming others, living like a victim or a martyr, feeling guilty and ashamed, and into feeling more connected with Spirit, please check out my Finding Freedom From Fear Spiritual Bootcamp class – it’s designed to be a rocket booster for your spiritual journey.  Starts September 9.

If you feel you’ve been holding yourself back and letting fear decide, this might be your answered prayer!  If it’s right for you, you’ll know.  Trust your intuition!

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