The rain barrel keeps yesterday’s excess available for tomorrow’s need.

Abundance and shortage rarely arrive at the same time, and most of the difficulty lies in the gap between them. A barrel does nothing clever; it simply holds what fell freely until a day when nothing falls. The same principle covers money, rest, goodwill and food, though the storing is usually less visible than the needing.

Look for the place in your week where surplus is currently running off the roof. An hour, a spare portion, or a bit of patience while things are calm can be set aside now with almost no effort and be genuinely useful later.