I think we have dealt sufficiently by now with our theme of time management, and I hope you have found the past six newsletters useful.
This time, before we begin a new strand, which will be thoughts on ‘how to be happy’, I’d like to pass on a story which was forwarded to me on the net by a friend and which I think is worth sharing:
‘There was a farmer who grew award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won a blue ribbon. 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."
He is very much aware of the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor's corn also improves.
So it is with our lives.
Those who choose to live in peace must help their neighbors to live in peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.
The lesson for each of us is this...if we are to grow good corn, we must help our neighbors grow good corn.’
