Survival lesson

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."

- Dale Carnegi

Once upon a time, on a hot summer day a farmer’s donkey fell down a deep well. For hours on end, the poor animal cried out in distress as the farmer tried to imagine a way to get the donkey out. Finally he determined, since the poor donkey was really rather old and not worth saving, besides, he decided to use this accident to his advantage by covering over the well.

Thus, he invited all of his neighbors over to help him cover the well and put the old donkey out of its misery.  Courteously, the other farmers dropped by, grabbed shovels and began to scoop dirt down into the well.

The donkey realized what was happening and cried out wretchedly in despair.  After some time, he quickly quieted down and, much to their amazement, looked up at them almost calculatingly. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well and was amazed at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something incredible. He would simply shake it off, and climbed on top of the falling dirt.

As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt into the well, the donkey happily continued to shake it off and take another step upwards and onwards. Before too long, the donkey had risen so high that he easily stepped up over the edge of the well and happy to be alive, ran off into the fields.

Life is much like this donkey’s story.  You are going to get a lot of dirt and trash shoveled over you. The art of survival is to simply shake it off, trample it and keep on going.

Difficulties and obstacles in life are nothing more than stepping-stones. You can get out of the deepest, darkest, most hopeless situations simply by continuing, not surrendering, and bravely taking one more step.