Dear President-Elect Trump:
I continue today, the thoughts of yesterday’s letter. My letter today, however, is essentially the words of James Allen, as published by James Fedor, in his compilation As a Man Thinketh, Volume 2.
“Go into the fields and country lanes in the springtime, and you will see farmers and gardeners busy sowing seeds in the newly prepared soil. If you were to ask any one of those gardeners or farmers what kind of produce he expected from the seed he was sowing, he would doubtless regard you as foolish and would tell you that he does not ‘expect’ at all, that it is a matter of common knowledge that his produce will be of the kind which he is sowing and that he is sowing wheat, barley, or turnips, as the case may be, in order to reproduce that particular kind.”
“There is no law in the world of nature around us which is not to be found operating with the same mathematical certainty in the mind of man and in human life.” “There is a process of seed-sowing in the mind and life, a sowing which leads to a harvest according to the kind of seed sown. Thoughts, words, and acts are seeds son, and, by the inviolable law of things, they produce after their own kind.”
“The man who thinks hateful thoughts brings hatred upon himself. The man who thinks loving thoughts is loved. The man whose thoughts, words, and acts are sincere is surrounded by sincere friends; the insincere man is surrounded by insincere friends. The man who sows wrong thoughts and deeds and prays that God will bless him in is in the position of a farmer, who having sown tares, asks God to bring forth for him a harvest of wheat.”
“He who would be blest, let him scatter blessings. He who would be happy, let him consider the happiness of others.”
“Then there is another side to this sowing. The farmer must scatter all his seed upon the land and then leave it to the elements. Were he to covetously hoard his seed, he would lose both it and his produce for his seed would perish. It perishes when he sows it, but in perishing it brings forth a greater abundance. So in life, we get by giving; we grow rich by scattering.”
“Men believe that they can sow the seeds of strife, impurity, and unbrotherliness, and then gather in a rich harvest of peace, purity, and accord by merely asking for it.”
“Men reap that which they sow, and any man can reap all the blessedness now and at once if he will put aside selfishness and so broadcast the seeds of kindness, gentleness, and love.”
This is counsel we can all use.
Sincerely,
David O. Leavitt
