I lost touch with him and heard he took a job with a different organization. I tried several times to reach him with no success. Finally, the day before I visited him, I actually got through to the right person and made an appointment. I talked to several people in the process of making an appointment and without exception, they all spoke of how much they loved him. Every person I know who visited him so he could do his chiropractic thing on them raved about him which matched my own personal experience.
He noticed me as I walked toward his office and met me with the biggest, most welcoming smile you could imagine. In a split second, I felt important and valued, almost as if I was going to a family gathering. We shook hands and began catching up while he slipped in questions about why I was there.
We quickly caught up on family and kids and work. As he adjusted and I talked, I mentioned what an amazing impression he has made on everyone around him. He is very good and very humble and simply smiled a little humble smile. I went on a little longer and he, sensing he needed to respond in some way said, " I just live by the Golden Rule." There may be some of you who have never heard of the Golden Rule, so permit me to share from a writing by wiseGEEK on line;
The Golden Rule is the idea that people should treat others in the same way that they themselves would like to be treated. It is often expressed as "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," which is one translation of a Biblical verse, Luke 6:31. Also called the ethic of reciprocity, variations of this concept can found in many religions and throughout history. Some versions urge people to love other people or to avoid doing harm to others. In each case, the underlying theme is that one should treat other people with kindness and respect.
It is not clear when the Golden Rule was first expressed or by whom. The Old Testament book of Leviticus, which was written in about 1400 B.C., says in verse 18, chapter 19: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” The Chinese philosopher Confucius, who lived from 551–479 B.C., is said to have written, "Do not do to others that which we do not want them to do to us." A Hindu text written in about the same time period, the Mahabharata, includes the phrase, “Do not unto others which would cause pain if done to you.” Similar concepts are expressed in Taoism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and many other religions and philosophies.
The Golden Rule also has been found in ancient texts from Greece, Egypt, Babylon, Persia, India and other countries. Not all of these texts are expressly religious or philosophical. For example, in Homer's Odyssey, which is believed to have been written sometime in 600-800 B.C., one character states, “I will be as careful for you as I should be for myself in the same need.”
As we can see, a great many people throughout the ages have written on this rather small sentance. It is a small sentance that has gained ageless and worldwide attention and consideration. If we took two of the references made and combined them it would be; "Love thy neighbor as thyself, doing unto others as you would have them do unto you."
We may know people who say they do or believe things we can't really see them doing. Not this man. It is absolutely no stretch to believe he lives life according to the the Golden Rule. He lives it and if you know him at all, you know he does.
After a few more adjustments, we talked about the funky tummy and about the use of probiotics. I had taken them when my stomach had an issue, kind of like you would take Rolaids or Tums. He corrected my misguided thinking by telling me they had to be taken continually and likened them to a garden.
The analogy was that when you walk on barren ground and throw a couple seeds hear and there, you cannot expect to see a beautiful garden appear. You need to plant the seeds continually and while you are planting the newest seeds, the one you planted earlier will begin to rise up to be what they were planted for. That made perfect sense and no wonder - duh! - why what I was trying to accomplish with the probiotics had yet to happen.
What if we made the Golden Rule available in seed form?
What if every one of us in this crazy, lost and misdirected world were to start planting Golden Rule seeds? What if we were to really love our neighbors as ourselves and do to them as we would have them do to us? From what the good doctor expressed, I believe the same applies. It has to be done everyday and all the time if we are ever to see a beautiful garden filled with loving and caring people. The doctor lives it and made the world around him a great place and we can do the same. We can impact and change our workplace, schools, homes, neighborhoods, stores and everyplace we go.
If we set our mind on it, so much could be accomplished. We could even make really cool T-shirts and hand out flyers! Seriously, not only would we change the world around us but we would also be changed. Just keep on throwing around those seeds of love and caring and don't look back or worry how they are doing. Just keep walking in the garden called Earth and plant. Be a planter of the most wholesome and nutritious item we can imagine. This plant will feed the souls and hearts of everyone you come into contact with. It is a plant with no calories, fat, transfatty stuff, sugars, or carbohydrates. It is heart healthy to say the least.
Be a planter of good things! Plant love. Plant doing good unto others. If each of would get out there and plant in our little parcel of the world we could make it the garden it once was and can be again. All it takes is you and you and you. Plant love baby, plant love! Then just step back and see what blooms.