An old man walked into a small village placed upon an elevated hill in the mountains. The place had been abandoned many years before due to the lack of resources that the mountain could provide, crops were always dry or frozen, and the erosion of the houses due to the intense weather kept increasing, with the risk of collapsing increasing. Life was becoming extremely difficult for its citizens. Still, the place had one resource that no other village around the area had: Clear water with exceptional Healing Properties coming from a thin hole at the centre of it.
The man’s memory was sharp, and he clearly remembered why the entire place had to be evacuated:
Thirty years before, all kinds of people would visit the town to heal their afflictions, but as the weather worsened, the roads became impossible to reach, and the hole people used to collect the water was becoming thinner due to the instability of the soil. A small well was built surrounding it, trying to protect it from closing. New roads, construction plans and schematics were created in trying to improve the accessibility of the place, but the weather and how hard it was to reach the water through the hole kept forcing people to discard their ideas.
A renowned architect was sent into town to create designs for new systems to collect such water and deliver it directly to nearby villages. The system failed quickly due to the dust, mud and walls of the thin hole polluting the water upon arriving at the surface. It was time for people to abandon the place, or they will starve.
Rewards, money and gold were promised to those with incredible ideas to collect the Healing Waters.
Ten years later, a famous inventor was set into town to create a system to collect such water. He spent years planning it, bringing tubes thin enough to fit the area, only to discover that his hydro-powered invention kept the water clean but collapsed after a few days since it lacked personnel maintaining it on a daily basis.
Ten more years passed, and the water was still impossible to be harvested. People spoke of the curse of the mountain, how all projects would fail and how the waters were already a myth, still, that day, the man decided to visit his hometown, and upon arrival, he heard something coming from within the village.
Confused, he decided to enter, knowing the dangers that could imply due to the condition of the buildings. As he walked in, he started walking through plantations of bamboo. He kept walking towards the centre of the village.
There, a young man was pulling a rope from the well.
-Excuse me, what are you doing? -Asked the old man.
The young man didn’t expect to see anyone there, and excited about the visit, he turned around and replied, gesturing the man to approach.
-I am gathering water to heal the people from my village.
-That’s impossible, the water gets polluted when you bring it close to the surface, I’ve seen all kinds of plans failing. -Said the old man while approaching him, not believing his eyes.
The young man pulled out the thin glass and drank the healing waters while replying. “Ten years ago, I planted bamboo seeds on the broken floors of the houses which people were abandoning. I tied a glass to a rope and collected twenty glasses of water, then placed them in broken jars, which dripped water slowly. Since then, I have visited yearly to refill the broken jars with many glasses of water, but the snow made the biggest part of the job.”
-But… This village was collapsing! I visited many years after people evacuated and never saw bamboo growing. -Replied the old man looking at the bamboo forest surrounding the area.
-You see, bamboo takes up to five years to grow, I knew it was enough time for this place to be entirely deserted, that way, the houses and the snow would keep providing water to the seeds, and the erosion would create new areas to plant more bamboo. All I had to do was visit until when the roads became impossible to walk. Then, bamboo would multiply by itself, and that would keep the structure of the houses intact.
-What about the healing waters? Are they safe to drink now?
-Bamboo also filters water and keeps the soil together, it is one of the most incredible plants out there. -Replied the man offering a glass of water to the old man.
From all the ideas all kinds of people planned and tried over the last 30 years, a simple man finally found a way to gather the Healing Waters.
-How did you come to this idea? -Asked the old man, impressed by the taste of the water.
-My dad was ill, I came to visit the town trying to heal him, but as it was impossible to collect it before he passed away, he told me:
Planning and thinking is like holding water in your hands, taking action is like holding water in a glass.
Have patience and keep planting seeds, time will reward you with infinite growth. In life, we already have all the resources needed to succeed around us.
The young man then understood how all the big plans, inventions and designs were destined to fail, but on the other hand, all that was needed was to take action. He visited the town and simply took action with a literal glass and some seeds, changing the entire ecosystem of the village.
-The bamboo also filters and delivers fresh water to my village through a connected bamboo canal system I created throughout the years. — Said the young man pointing at the side of the plaza. -Since the weather prevented me from bringing heavy stuff, all I had to carry was one glass and some seeds, then I used bamboo to create a safe way for the water to travel.
The old man felt a tear sliding down his cheek…
