My wonderful weapon of information, John Malone, brought to my attention an interesting TRUE story about an African farmer who sought his dream of riches without ever considering looking in his proverbial back yard.
This is true story with an ageless moral. It got me thinking about my own life and how I, many times, felt that what I needed to make me happy was or “over there”. Certainly it wasn’t were I was standing. So I toiled and strove and climbed to get “over there”. Yet, as I could predict NOW, after settling in the “over there” spot which I thought would represent my happiness and self actualization, I’d soon find it didn’t fulfill me, didn’t have me happier, richer, more peaceful, more accepted, or more loved. So back to the drawing board I’d go, ever the optimist that the riches were now “over there” (further, of course, than over here. I should have been a long distance runner. Wait a minute, I was!) And the saga continued like hamster in a wheel who thinks she’s going somewhere but actually is...not!. The damn grass was NEVER greener on the other side. But I had a great capacity to justify that by telling myself it was the wrong SHADE. Looking back now, as one always does, if the grass was greener it’s because it was being given better care than my own.
The farm turned out to be the Kimberly Diamond Mine...the richest the world has ever known. The original farmer was literally standing on "Acres of Diamonds" until he sold his farm.
So read on and you’ll perhaps see yourself in this story.
ACRES OF DIAMONDS
The story — a true one — is told of an African farmer who heard tales about other farmers who had made millions by discovering diamond mines. These tales so excited the farmer that he could hardly wait to sell his farm and go prospecting for diamonds himself. He sold the farm and spent the rest of his life wandering the African continent searching unsuccessfully for the gleaming gems that brought such high prices on the markets of the world. Finally, worn out and in a fit of despondency, he threw himself into a river and drowned.
Meanwhile, the man who had bought his farm happened to be crossing the small stream on the property one day, when suddenly there was a bright flash of blue and red light from the stream bottom. He bent down and picked up a stone. It was a good-sized stone, and admiring it, he brought it home and put it on his fireplace mantel as an interesting curiosity.
Several weeks later a visitor picked up the stone, looked closely at it, hefted it in his hand, and nearly fainted. He asked the farmer if he knew what he'd found. When the farmer said, no, that he thought it was a piece of crystal, the visitor told him he had found one of the largest diamonds ever discovered. The farmer had trouble believing that. He told the man that his creek was full of such stones, not all as large as the one on the mantel, but sprinkled generously throughout the creek bottom.
The farm the first farmer had sold, so that he might find a diamond mine, turned out to be one of the most productive diamond mines on the entire African continent.The first farmer had owned, free and clear ... acres of diamonds. But he had sold them for practically nothing, in order to look for them elsewhere. The moral is clear: If the first farmer had only taken the time to study and prepare himself to learn what diamonds looked like in their rough state, and to thoroughly explore the property he had before looking elsewhere, all of his wildest dreams would have come true.
Millions of people have been touched by this story and it's because of the idea that each of us is, at this very moment, standing in the middle of our own acres of diamonds. If we quietly assess our 'riches' - our health, our friendships, our work, the people who love us, we would realise that what we seek is already right in front of us. With the right attitude, we realize that we are walking on our own Acre of Diamonds. It's right under your feet :)
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