What Goes Around Comes Around is a term we have all heard, and probably said on multiple occasions, if not many times. My Nana used to say, “Now Robin Edward Davis! You better watch what you sow, because you WILL reap the result!” I have no idea how many times I heard that remark from her, or whether it was my quizzical look that tipped her off to the fact that I had no idea what she was talking about, but at some point she asked, “You know what I mean by sow, s-o-w, right?” To which I replied, “Yea whaddya think I’m stupid? Of course I know, but I don’t have any holes in my pants or my shirts!

What Goes Around and What it Means!

The phrase from yesteryear was, “As You Sow, So Shall You Reap.” It was an expression that was common wisdom at the time. Because so many people have become turned off to religious-sounding jargon, however, when we hear a statement like this, it can easily push the tune-out button, dismissed as just another esoteric concept with no basis in reality.

The fact is, however, that this statement is far from religious jargon. In its earliest conception, it referred to the very real world and experience of the people being addressed, many of whom relied on farming acumen for their survival. It meant then, as it does now, that the care, precision and attention given to the planting and nurturing of the seeds one planted, would determine in large measure the quality and quantity of the harvest one reaped.

The great teachers of ancient times used this statement as an analogy because all could relate to it. The purpose was to point out, that just as the success of the harvest was directly related to the care and attention given to the seed, so it was in all areas of life, including health, prosperity, happiness and the quality of personal relationships.

They were trying to use a simple concept that everyone could grasp, to convey the basic nature of life. It is as practical as it is profound. It is also one of the basic tenets that are common to many of the world’s great philosophies. However, while it is as relevant today as it has ever been, it is also, as difficult to hear. Regardless, there is no doubt about the fundamental truth behind the statement.

In order to find a substitute for those forbidding and archaic sounding words, sow and reap, our current culture has come up with its own version. It is, What Goes Around, Comes Around, and is generally accepted as a basic “truism.” Because it has no whiff of religiosity, even though it means exactly the same thing as, as you sow, so shall you reap, we can more readily hear it. In addition, somewhere deep down inside, we mostly accept the meaning behind it, namely that:

What you are getting out of life is a direct result of what you are putting in.