There was a farmer in South Africa who inherited a farm from his parents. It was a nice ranch, the kind of ranch that would’ve provided a living for him and his family. But he inherited it at a time when the diamond boom was on in South Africa. He kept hearing stories of guys becoming ‘Bill-Gates-rich’ overnight. The more he heard the stories of their richness and abundance- the more dissatisfied he became with his own life and ranch. Until, one day, he couldn’t take it anymore. He sold the ranch, took all the money from the sale and invested in prospecting equipment. He went out to the bush and was obsessed with finding diamonds. One account of the story says that, after years, he never found a single diamond and committed suicide. Another account says that he died out there- bitter, broke, and alone.

It came to pass that he sold his old ranch to two brothers who were developers. One day, they’re moving some rocks around to clear up the land and they find these ‘unusual’ stones on the property. They didn’t know what they were so they had a professional take a look at them. They come to find out that these stones are raw uncut diamonds. It turns out that this ranch was the largest diamond deposit ever recorded in South Africa. These two brothers became the richest men in the world overnight….

“So I’m listening to the story and the whole time I’m thinking- I’m that idiot!!! I’m looking everywhere else when the power is right within me all along. But I have to clear away the things that block me from it. And that’s what Alcoholics Anonymous is about. It’s about a journey to spiritual growth through subtraction.”

“There are, in fact, people who appear to think only with the brain, or with whatever may be the specific thinking organ; while others think with all the body and all the soul, with the blood, with the marrow of the bones, with the heart, with the lungs, with the belly, with the life. And the people who think only with the brain develop into definition-mongers; they become the professionals of thought.”