I’ve been very fortunate in my life.  I have a healthy fear of heights, yet I have climbed mountains.  I used to be uncomfortable in front of people, yet I have spoken in front of audiences.   I appear to have no artistic talents, yet people have bought my photographs and called them art.

I always thought of myself as pretty ordinary.  Then I realized that there was no such thing as an ordinary person.  Everything begins with a seed.  The seed may be special, or the seed may be ordinary, but what develops is always unique.  We’re all sort of like farmers in the field of life.  We plant a seed and if it grows, what comes of it will plant another, and that one another.   If a thousand apple seeds are sown for just one fine apple tree,  so what.   One good tree can bear much fruit (and seed).

There have been many farmers (seed planters) in my life.  From Jesus to Abraham Lincoln, and from Einstein to my father.  From the old man down the street, to the children who have crossed my path.  They and we, are all “the planters of seeds”, we just don’t always know it.  You are affecting someone’s life right now.

We all need and depend on other people for the entire length of our life.  I have tried many times to go it alone.  I wanted to solve other people’s problems not to have them solve mine.  I wanted to figure it out myself rather than turn to others for help.  I have managed some pretty long stretches of life living that way, but that never lasts forever.  If I will not go to a friend for help, and instead I read a magazine on how to solve my problem, isn’t the author of that article the farmer (and help) in my life that I needed?  Are they not the sower of seeds?

In the end we have to nourish the seed with thirst quenching waters, and sunshine and love.  If one person plants the seed it is surely okay for another to help it grow.

I have forever admired farmers as well as backyard gardeners.  They are the nurturers.  You and I can do the same in the fields of life.

There are of course failures in life. Even the best farmer will occasionally get a bad crop. That doesn’t stop him from planting next year. The odds are with him, and with you too. Plant the seed, nurture it, and there will be more success than failure. The circle of life  begins with you.

“Do what you believe in, and believe in what you do”  Wayne Nelson

God Bless