The Beating Heart
Written by: Grand Master War Beauty
As you read this sermon, I want you to stop everything else. Quiet your mind, quiet your body. And I want you to take a deep breath in, then exhale. Upon exhale, listen to your physical heart beat.
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Did you hear it? I want you to remember that sound.
Now, vizualize the market. Loads of people, lots of goods. You are there buying fruit. As you pick up the fruit, you stop to admire its shape and flavor. The texture of that sweet piece of fruit. And as you feel that cold, sweet amainzg fruit in your hands, you see the man who stocks the bins. He is simple. He smiles as he places each piece of fruit in their proper bin. He looks worn out in his eyes though. He supports a small family. His wife just had a baby. the baby cries all night long. And the man loves his family and worships his wife, so he stays up with the baby, rocking and singing the same lullubies his mother sang to him. All for his tired and beautiful wife to get enough rest. But he was especially worn that day because he had to be at work early to reiceve the delivery truck of produce from the local farm they bought from.
The famer himself drives the truck to the store. He is an older man who has lived a long and full life. He smiles for business, but his face is hard and life tempered. Just the other month, after 40 years of marriage, he lost the only woman hed ever loved to cancer. She was kind, but hearty. They had weathered every extreme on their farm. In '94, their farm caught fire and destroyed their crops. In '99 the drought killed the land. But now their farm was thriving and able to support the family. He suffers from arthritis, and can't work like he used to. His 2 sons moved back home and help their father run the family farm. The farmer has had the same farm hand for 35 years. A single man, he is quiet, but works hard all day. And every spring the farm hand takes his pail of seeds and ploughs and tills the land then lays the seeds to rest in the earth. And every summer/fall that seed has grown into a plant bearing food. The farmhand picks the produce, the farmer inspects the crops to ensure only the best make it to the truck. The man at the store greets the truck and the farmer. He puts the produce into their bins, for you to pick up.
You remember the sound of your own heartbeat? That is the sound of produce man's heart. The sounds his heart makes when he holds his wife and his baby close to him after dinner each evening. The sound that the farmer's heart makes when he and his 2 sons visit his wife's grave out back every sunday for the past month. The sound the farmhands heart makes when he takes each tiny seed and enables it to grow into a plant bearing fruits. The sound the earth's heartbeat makes when it holds and grows that seed to the fruit you hold in your hand in that market. We are all connected by the same sound of our hearts beating. That energy is the lifeline in every single thing. So whatever you belive in, whatever your life story is....
You are never alone, and you will always be part of something bigger. So take comfort when you pick up a piece of fruit, and remember every hand that helped get that fruit into the bin. And be kind to all who cross your path. Each story has a tragedy act, and none are less important than the others.
May the Force be with you all.
