One Humanity One Story

Affirmation: I rise up and reclaim my true identity as a sacred being.

Sitting on Cocoa Beach in Florida, my bottom on wet sand, I enjoyed the spot where spent waves lap the land. Warm and foamy water flowed over the lower half of my body. With each receding wave, an accumulation of ocean refuse was deposited around me—lengths of seaweed and shards of shells. I was close enough to the ground to see that among the broken bits were some intact shells, tinier than my pinkie nail. I began inspecting them and then collected them, amused by their diverse designs.

Affirmation: I am a living, loving expression of God, right here and now.

The story is told of a farmer whose corn each year earned the winning prize at the state fair. One year, a reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew his corn. The farmer told the reporter that he shared his prize-winning seed corn with his neighbors.

When asked why, the farmer explained: “The wind picks up the pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If the neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.”