The Sowing of the Seed - by Ella Wheeler Wilcox - read by Dr Ian Ellis-Jones

“The Sowing of the Seed.” Written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox and read by Dr Ian Ellis-Jones. This short piece was written in 1906. All rights reserved.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919), who for many years was often referred to as the "Poet Laureate of New Thought", was an American author, poet and exponent of New Thought. Her many works include The Heart of New Thought (1902) and numerous books of inspirational poetry.
Dr Ian Ellis-Jones (born 1955) is an Australian academic, lawyer and published author. He has also worked for many years as a minister and teacher of New Thought, mindfulness and meditation. He is a member of the International New Thought Alliance (INTA) and the Theosophical Society of Australia and has been president of a Unity centre in Sydney, the Humanist Society of New South Wales, and the Council of Australian Humanist Societies (CAHS). His most recent book is Making Australia Positive (2023), which is both a history of New Thought in Australia and a dual biography of two great Australian New Thought leaders of yesteryear, namely, Grace M. Aguilar and Veni Cooper-Mathieson.
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THE SOWING OF THE SEED
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
When you start in the "New Thought" do not expect sudden illumination. Do not imagine that you are to become perfectly well, perfectly cheerful, successful, and a healer, in a few days. Remember all growth is slow. Mushrooms spring up in a night, but oaks grow with deliberation and endure for centuries.
Mental and spiritual power must be gained by degrees. If you attained maturity before you entered this field of "New Thought" it is folly to suppose a complete transformation of your whole being will take place in a week-a month-or a year. All you can reasonably look for is a gradual improvement, just as you might do if you were attempting to take up music or a science.
The New Thought is a science, the Science of Right Thinking. But the brain cells which have been shaped by the old thoughts of despondency and fear cannot all at once be reformed. It will be a case of "Try, try again. Make your daily assertions, "I am love, health, wisdom, cheerfulness, power for good, prosperity, success, usefulness, opulence.
Never fail to assert these things at least twice a day; twenty times is better. But if you do not attain to all immediately, if your life does not at once exemplify your words, let it not discourage you.
The saying of the words is the watering of the seeds. After a time they will begin to sprout, after a longer time to cover the barren earth with grain, after a still longer time to yield a harvest.
If you have been accustomed to feeling prejudices and dislikes easily, you will not all at once find it easy to illustrate your assertion, "I am love." If you have indulged yourself in thoughts of disease, the old aches and pains will intrude even while you say, "I am health!"
If you have groveled in fear and a belief that you were born to poverty and failure, courage and success and opulence will be of slow growth. Yet they will grow and materialize, as surely as you insist and persist.
Declare they are yours, right in the face of the worst disasters. There is nothing so confusing and frustrates misfortune as to stare it down with hopeful unflinching eyes. If you awaken some morning in the depths of despondency and gloom, do not say to yourself: "I may as well give up this effort to adopt the New Thought. I have made a failure of it evidently." Instead, sit down quietly and assert calmly that you are cheerfulness, hope, courage, faith and success.
Realize that your despondency is only temporary; an old habit, which is asserting itself, but over which you will gradually gain the ascendancy. Then go forth into the world and busy yourself in some useful occupation, and before you know it is on the way, hope will creep into your heart, and the gray cloud will lift from your mind. Physical pains will loosen their hold, and conditions of poverty will change to prosperity.
Your mind is your own to educate and direct. You can do it by the aid of the Spirit, but you must be satisfied to work slowly.
Be patient and persistent.

[@drianej]

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[@michaeltablet8577]

Thank you so very much! God bless you!

[@drianej]

You are so welcome-and thank you for your kind words. God bless you on your spiritual journey.

[@ChristineC-sh9tz]

This is so encouraging! I have been working to change my thought processes for so long, and I was ready to give up all hope. Thank you for this great message. 🙏😊

[@drianej]

Never, never, never give up hope. Each day we are reincarnated into newness of life-indeed, every moment of the day. So, there is only now. Live in that. And thank you for your kind words.

[@ChristineC-sh9tz]

@@drianej🙏🩵✨