"Prepare Your Soil, With or Without Seed"

"Prepare Your Soil, With or Without Seed"

​A long time ago, a rich farmer and a poor farmer lived side-by-side in a village. After many years of plenty, one year the skies became stingy with rain. The land was scorched by drought. The grass and leaves withered and did not sprout anew for a long time. Famine set in.

​The people waited, unable to harvest, unable to pile up their sheaves, unable to tread grain on the threshing floor. Their granaries were emptied. Despair set in.

​But nothing lasts forever. The cruel year passed, the dry season ended, and the sky reconciled with the earth. Clouds gathered above; thunder began to rumble. Both the poor and the rich farmers looked up with hope; everyone took up their ploughs and started tilling their fields. The poor farmer finished preparing his land and called his miserable wife, asking if she had managed to hide any grain for seed, perhaps tucked away from their own hungry mouths.

​She replied with deep sorrow. Although she had begged and borrowed from relatives and neighbors, she found no one to lend her seed. She confessed that last night, when their hardship became unbearable, she had ground the tiny bundle of saved seed and they had eaten it together as a small loaf.

​He searched again, hoping to borrow seed from a relative or neighbor, but there was none left over to lend him. The poor farmer was devastated.

​Finally, his only option was to ask the rich neighbor. He went to the rich man's house and pleaded desperately for a small amount of seed. But the rich farmer was greedy and envious; he was cruel and told him he had no seed to lend. Grieved, the poor farmer returned to his wife. He had tried every chance to get seed, but failed. For days, he was lost in thought, but he kept working. It was as if he hadn't fully prepared his land, and he ploughed it repeatedly, perhaps nine times.

​In the countryside, to have a field ready for planting but no seed—to leave it fallow—is the ultimate disgrace. It's akin to death itself. Fearing the village would mock him and make him a subject of gossip for letting his land go unsown, the poor farmer conceived a plan.

​One evening, just after sunset, he asked his wife to bring him a large basket filled with ashes, mixed with fine charcoal dust.

​As she brought it, he took handfuls of the ash and scattered it across his meticulously ploughed field, as if he were sowing grain. Poor man! This was his trick: if passersby saw him "sowing," he could later claim the seed failed to sprout due to bad soil, pests, or another excuse, thereby escaping public shame.

​Now, as the poor farmer scattered the ash, his rich neighbor watched him. The sight amazed the wealthy man. “What? Who gave this wretched pauper white teff seed?” The rich farmer's greed was immediately stoked.

​“No way! Is he going to eat fine white teff just like me?” His envy robbed him of sleep. Finally, his mind, fueled by malice, gave him a wicked idea. "This white teff-eating pauper must not, by any miracle, eat the same grain as me!" He woke his wife and told her to bring a large quantity of black teff seed. "No way! I'll sneak into his field tonight and thickly sow black teff over his so-called white teff. I’ll make it a 'mixed lot' so he can't harvest the good stuff! (Black teff is considered a lesser-quality grain than white teff in this context).

​In the dead of night, he crept onto the poor man’s field and heavily scattered the black teff seed. Content that he had done his wicked deed, he returned home and slept.

​The poor farmer, having given up hope, decided to leave the rest to God. A few days later, he returned to his field and saw a thick carpet of tender teff seedlings sprouting! (Hadn't he ploughed it nine times?) The seedlings were beautiful. “Am I dreaming, or is this real?” The poor farmer was stunned. Yes! Everything he saw was real.

​“God performed a miracle for me!” he rejoiced (for he had no idea what had happened). He told his wife everything.

​That year, his granary was filled with the finest black teff. What an irony! Black teff is known to make a very rich, 'oily' bread! The miserly neighbor had, in his malice, become the reason the poor farmer got to eat a hearty, rich bread.

​🌟 Key Takeaways: The Unwavering Principle

​The core of this tale is the final instruction: Prepare your land, whether it rains or not!

1. ​Preparation is Prime: The poor farmer had to prepare his soil (plough it nine times) even without the assurance of seed. If he had stopped or become lazy, saying, "Why should I plough if I have no seed?", the rich man’s malicious act would have fallen on unprepared ground and yielded nothing. The miracle was made possible by his diligence and prior work.
2. ​Opportunity Meets Readiness: The universe (or in the story, Providence) provided the 'seed,' but only because the 'soil'—the farmer's readiness, labor, and hope—was already perfected.
3. ​Don't Let Despair Paralize You: Just as the poor farmer did not stop tilling, do not stop preparing for future opportunities.
   • ​Don't stop learning because you don't see a job opening.
   • ​Never give up hope; you never know what the final outcome will be.
4. ​Keep Your Hive Ready: Always work on your 'hive' (your skills, your network, your mind). A queen bee (opportunity) will not enter a hive that is not well-prepared.