My father was a farmer. Well, actually he didn’t actively farm. He taught agriculture. But he was a farmer. He loved the land, he would often say, “Where the earth meets the sky; that is where the action is.” Well, actually it is in the top soil where the action really takes place – that is where the earth meets the sky.
Have you ever stood in freshly tilled soil in the spring of the year? You wiggle your feet just a bit and with your soles you feel the damp cool earth. Softly covering your toes is the drier soil warmed by the sun. You felt the cool and the warmth at the same time. You can feel that this is where the action is. This is where you plant the seed. This is where the germination takes place. This is where most of the nutrients are – not too deep – not too shallow.
I have long been impressed by native American artist, George Morrision, an abstract expressionist, landscape painter and sculptor. It has been written that Morrison George Morrison’s work reveals a mode of openness, of listening with the heart. Looking and listening Morrison stood before the horizon seeking to penetrate its presence.
Since the late sixties, the ‘horizon line’ became an obsession with Morission. He used it in all of his work until the time of his death. He said it was to be the focal point, to identify the landscape. It is the focal point for beauty; it is where the action is – where things come together – where things are differentiated. I think Morrision was a ‘farmer’.
My father knew, and Morrison too, that you had to plant the seed at just the right depth, you had to honor the top soil – the place where the earth meets the sky – that is where the action is, the beauty, the ferment.
C. Otto Scharmer, MIT senior lecturer, is a farmer as well who listened to his father talk about the importance of where the earth meets the sky. Growing up on a farm in a small town just outside of Hamburg, Germany, Scharmer heard from his father the same message I heard from my father. Scharmer then took the metaphor of ‘farming’ – of where the action is – to the world of social interaction and culture change – to building community.
Most often we operate above the surface – talking objectively, about things we see right in front of us. Or, talking objectively about things we cannot see. But to engage in real important discussions with self and others we need to go deeper. Above the surface is not the place to plant the seed. The first step is to listen and act with an open mind. That is good science. Keeping an open mind and testing hypotheses.
The second step is to listen and act with an open heart. This is deeper. Listening empathetically, with feeling, emotion moves us closer to self and to others. But still not the best place for the seed to germinate.
The third step is to listen and act with an open will. That is to let go of all preconceived thoughts and feelings – to remove all perceptions – to be empty and ready to be fulfilled. Here is where the seed germinates, is transformed, and grows into something new.
To ‘farm’ is: 1) to celebrate where things come together – where things come together is where the action is, and 2) to live and act with an open mind, and open heart, and an open will.
Are you farming?
Would you like to practice farming with ShareOn?
Richard Bents
