Acres of Diamonds

Sometimes when I get in a stuck place i.e. I don't know what to do about a particular situation or I don't know which path I should take. Whatever the unknown may be, I ask my higher self at night before I go to sleep for direction, for an answer, for the next step. I've learned to keep a pad of paper and a pen nearby because sometime between falling asleep and awakening the next morning an answer to my dilemma may come forth and if I don't write it down it will vanish like a mist and be gone forever. Sometimes whole poems will emerge that are scribbled over pages and pages that have to be decoded and transcribed into something readable in the morning. In any event, I think it is very cool and always welcome this somewhat bizarre but effective process.

A few weeks ago I was feeling like, "OK, what's next, where do I go from here?" So I put my question out before I went to bed but I forgot to equip myself with a pad of paper and pen. The Universe being generous, friendly and understanding chose another method to get the message across to me. So I'm sleeping happily snuggled under he covers when suddenly I'm awaken by a very loud voice, saying, very loudly, "Acres of Diamonds!!!". It was said just once but with enough force to make me jump out of bed as if a stick of dynamite and just exploded...you know where!

I ran to the computer and looked up "Acres of Diamonds." I knew it was a talk/sermon that had been given thousands of times by Russell Cromwell back in the late 1920's and I knew the gist of the talk but I wanted to read the entire text to see how it applied to me.

You can find it, should you be interested, the same way I did but here's the cliff note version:

A farmer wants to get rich by going out into the world to search for diamonds so he might become wealthy beyond imagination. He sells his farm, all his belongings, etc etc and leaves his home in search of diamonds. The fellow that buys his farm one day goes to a brook and finds a stone which he later discovers is a gigantic diamond that has been there all along.

Obvious moral: No need to take off in search of __(fill in the blank)______, because everything you need you are sitting on right now. Just gotta dig it up. Basically another take on "the grass always looks greener on the other side".

A friend of mine is a world traveler, she's got a knack for traipsing off across the globe to look for herself or for love or to escape a relationship or to find a new experience. I always admired her ability to cut loose and take off. But one day, during a particularly close and intimate sharing conversation she told me that no matter where she ran off to...she (and all her issues) went right along with her. She couldn't escape herself no matter how she tried.

Dissatisfaction can live anywhere.

What diamond mine are each and every one of us sitting on of which we are not even aware? What riches did we come into the world already equipped to share? What are our talents? What prevents us from accessing the wealth, happiness, joy, peace and love for which we all long?

I don't know the answers for you...I'm just learning some of these answers for me.

I think the answer lies right under my nose.