Beaver Pond Mill left an empty husk

“Oh my God!” my mind said before my words could react to the burning hulk that was left of the landmark on route 153 that we traveled on our shopping trips to Richmond. The Beaver Pond Mill where my wife and I used to buy fresh ground corn meal and flour back in the 80s, and then became a quaint mill house after it went out of business was gone. Burned up with nothing but a shell remaining, the mill was still smoking when we passed and a woman was standing in front crying.

First it was a monument to a bygone age when our land and neighboring towns were our livelihood; then it was a monument to ingenuity and a new use of an old building; and now it is a grave site for our mortality. This mill, for those of you not from this area, was pleasantly down in a  little stream valley where a beaver pond must have been—we can assume there are no more beavers now—and you would come upon this hidden dip in the rolling countryside always with a little welcomed surprise. Across from the mill was an old farm with old well-kept out buildings (probably the mill owners lived there) and one could reflect at 55 miles an hour on how life used to be here in Southside Virginia.

Then one was up out of the little dip into history on into the main artery going to Richmond. Like a bookmark in a history book, the old mill as a home seemed immortal. I mean, what could destroy this brick and stone mill built like a fortress against time?

Fire, that’s what! Either fire, wind, water, or earth is going bring change to all our familiar forms. We call changes in form an unwelcomed change, or destruction and tragedy. But all things change, said the Buddha and he took his immovable seat in this wisdom and discovered in himself that which doesn’t change.

Now as I pass the ruins of the Beaver Pond Mill it’s emptiness will remind me of Buddha’s awakening. Saddened to see the old mill gone, yes, but joyous to know that it’s okay. Buddha’s freedom lay in his acceptance of change. This is the way it is. All life and form change, and through our total acceptance of that truth, we come upon a fortress within that is free from time.

I wonder what will be built here at the beaver pond now?