Riding the Bus of Our Life--a Muse

 

                                                      

                                                                   Water Wheels 

As a boy in grammar school, I went on a field trip to Old Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts, a reconstructed town from Colonial times.   What impressed me there was a magnificently-constructed, flour mill, run by a giant water wheel with massive stones that ground wheat into flour. In New England where I'm from, they also used water wheels for manufacturing and sawing lumber.  In Terryville, Connecticut there's one still preserved on the main street as you go through the town. There's a wonderful lesson hidden in those old, water wheels.  How did they work?  Water flowed into them from a stream or brook, then flowed out.  The movement of the water turned the wheel and generated lots of power before the days of electricity. 

Now, in order for the water wheel to turn, it had to be in the flow of water and that water had to come in and then go out.  There're two ways to stop a water wheel.  One is to block the inflow of the water and, of course, the wheel will stop turning.  The other way is to block the outflow.  The water will back up and the wheel will stop that way.  What's my point?  We're like that water wheel.  We've gotta have inflow, and we've gotta have outflow.  It's just like eating, that food's gotta come in, give you energy and then it has to leave. Otherwise you're not going to be feeling so good.

There are three types of people in the world!  First, there're those who, like the water wheel, take in a lot.  They spend most of their time and effort taking in knowledge, bringing in money, accumulating stuff. They can become, forgive the word, constipated. Their wheel slows down.  The second group is constantly putting out, working for family, serving their boss or family, doing for others.  They can become, exhausted. Their wheel slows down.  

The third group are the balanced ones.  They take in, they give out, they go with the flow.  And their wheel turns.  So, it's a matter of taking the time to recharge every day, perhaps in a quiet time of contemplation or reading something inspirational.  And then it's a matter of being productive, giving out, serving others.  That's what makes your wheel turn, gives you strength and makes for your happiness.