An austrian legend says that in a certain village there was a peaceful inhabitant of the woods who was employed by the Town Council to look after the ponds that provided water to the town’s fountain.

        The gentleman, with silent regularity, supervised the hills, took leaves and dry branches away, and cleaned the lime that could contaminate the flow of the fresh water.

        Nobody observed the long hours he spent walking around the hills, or the efforts he had to make to take all that litter away.

        Slowly, the small village started to attract tourists. Gracious swans started to swim in the crystal waters.

        Water wheels from neighbouring companies started to work day and night.

        Plantations were naturally watered, the view from the restaurants was of an extraordinary beauty.

        Years passed by. One day, as they used to do every semester, the Town Council held a meeting.

        One of the members of the Council looked at the fountain keeper’s salary.

        He immediately alerted the others and made a long speech about how the town had been paying that old man for years.

        What for? What did he actually do? He was a strange kind of forest ranger, with no utility at all.

        His speech convinced everybody. Therefore, the keeper was dismissed.

        On the following weeks, nothing new happened. However, when autumn arrived, the trees started to lose their leaves.

        Small branches started to fall into the ponds created by the springs.

        One afternoon, somebody noticed yellowish colour in the ponds. Two days later, the water became completely dark.

        One more week and a thin layer of silt covered the entire surface along the ponds’ shore.

        A bad smell started to be felt. The swans immigrated. The water wheels started to go around very slowly, and then eventually stopped.

        Tourists abandoned the place. Sickness arrived at the village.

        The Town Council gathered again and realized the big mistake they had made.

        Immediately, they employed the fountain keeper again.

        Some weeks later, the waters of the river started to get clear. The water wheels started to work once more.

        The swans came back, and life took its course again.

* * *

        Like the small village’s Council, many of us do not consider some people’s work important.

        Some people work so that bread arrives at our tables; there are the ones who refill the supermarket shelves.

        Others keep the corridors of schools and hospitals clean.

        There are people who sweep the streets, who collect the garbage, drive buses, open gates of companies.

        Without these people’s work, our work would not happen, or maybe life would not be possible.

        The world is like a huge company, where each of us has a specific and indispensable job.

        If somebody does not execute his or her job, others will notice that.

        We depend on each other. To live, to work, to be happy!

        Let us think about it!

Spiritist Moment Team based on chapter  O zelador da fonte, by Charles R. Swindoll, from the book Histórias para o coração, by Alice Gray. Publishing House: United Press.