When you have to make choices

A man got lost in desert and has exhausted all the water that he had carried . He knew if he didn’t get some water he would certainly die. Although completely exhausted , the man didn’t give up hope. He kept walking for some sign of good fortune. Suddenly he saw a small hut at some distance. “could it be a mirage ?” he thought. “May be a hallucination” but with no other option left he moved closer only to realize that the hut was real. Gathering the last bit of energy he dragged his body inside the hut hoping he could find some water. The hut was empty and seemed like it had been abandoned long time ago. His heart skipped a beat, when he saw what was in the hut. A hand Pump! Water finally! He was overjoyed. He began working on water pump but no water came up. He tried harder and harder but no water. Finally after putting every bit of energy he gave up out of exhaustion and sat down thinking “maybe I am destined to die out of thirst”. And then the second lifeline , he noticed a bottle in the corner of room. It was filled with water and corked up. He opened the bottle and when he was about to drink it , he noticed a piece of paper. The handwritten note said “use this water to start the pump , don’t forget to fill the bottle when you are done”. He was now in a dilemma to follow the instruction or to ignore and drink it. If the instruction was wrong he would be throwing away last amount water he would ever see. 

Finally with a leap of faith he used the water to start the pump and he could see fresh cold water coming out and he quenched his thirst. He also found a map and a pencil in the room. The map showed he was far away from civilization , but atleast now he knew where he was and in which direction to go next. He filled up his flask for the journey ahead . And as per instruction on note he filled the bottle and put a cork. Before leaving he also added an extra line in the instruction ‘believe me, it works!’. 

Most of us may not be confronted with this situation where the choice made decide whether we live or die. Yet we have our own journeys to take and our own choices to make. If the choice we make goes our way , fantastic , we can inspire people by telling them ‘believe me it works!’ and if it doesn’t go our way we can share our experiences , our mistakes, realizations and empower people to make their right choices.

The Copper Coin

Once, Gandhi was on an expedition to collect funds from various cities and villages for an organization to help the poor. He went to several places and finally reached Orissa. He organized a meeting in Orissa. There, he gave a speech to the public, requesting them to give him funds for the organization. At the end of his speech, a very old woman with bent back, tattered clothing, white hair, and shrunken skin got up. She requested the volunteers to allow her to reach Gandhi. However, the volunteers stopped her. She did not give up. She fought with them and reached Gandhi. She touched the feet of Gandhi. Then she took out a copper coin kept in the folds of her saree and placed it at his feet. Then the old lady left the stage.

Gandhi very carefully took the coin. The treasurer of the organization for the poor asked Gandhi for the copper coin, but he refused to give it. “I keep cheques worth thousands of rupees,” said the treasurer. “Yet you won’t trust me with a copper coin!”  Gandhi said, “This copper coin is worth much more than those thousands. If a man has several lakhs and he gives away a thousand or two, it doesn’t mean much.” Yes, the coin might have been the only thing that the poor old woman possessed. She did not even have proper clothes and could not afford good food. Still she gave everything she had. That is why Gandhi regarded the coin as very precious.

Offering help when we have nothing or very little makes it more valuable.

Its in your hands

High on a hilltop overlooking the beautiful city of Venice, Italy, there lived an old man who was a genius. Legend had it he could answer any question anyone might ask of him. Two of the local boys figured they could fool the old man, so they caught a small bird and headed for his residence. 

One of the boys held the little bird in his hands and asked the old man if the bird was dead or alive. Without hesitation the old man said, ” Son, if I say to you that the bird is alive, you will close your hands and crush him to death. If I say the bird is dead, you will open your hands and he will fly away. You see, son, in your hands you hold the power of life and death.” 

In your hands you hold the seeds of failure or the potential for greatness. Your hands are capable but they must be used and for the right things to reap the rewards you are capable of attaining.

Cup or Coffee...

A group of computer engineers, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups, some ordinary looking, some expensive, some exquisite. He told them to help themselves to hot coffee. When all the students had a cup of coffee in their hands, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap looking ones. "While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and worse, you were eyeing each other's cups."

"Now if life is coffee , then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it. " So the moral of this story is: don't let the cups drive you, enjoy the coffee instead.

Difficulties...

A man was an avid Gardener.. He saw a small butterfly laying few eggs in one of the pots in his garden. Since that day he kept looking at the eggs with ever growing curiosity and eagerness. One day, an egg started to move and shake a little. He was excited to see a new life coming up right in front of his eyes. He spent hours watching the egg. The egg started to expand and develop cracks. A tiny head and antennae started to come out slowly. The man's excitement knew no bounds and he got his magnifying glasses  and sat to watch the life and body of a pupa coming out. He saw the struggle of the tender pupa and couldn't resist his urge to help. He went and got a tender forceps to help the egg break, a nip here and there, to help the struggling life. The pupa was out and the man felt ecstatic! 

Though he waited each day for the pupa to grow and fly like a beautiful butterfly, that never happened .The larvae pupa had an over-sized head and kept crawling along in the pot for 4 weeks and then died! Depressed, the man went to his botanist friend and asked for the reason. The botanist told him that ,the struggle to break out of the egg helps the larvae to send blood to its wings and the  push helps the head to remain small so that the tender wings can support it through its 4 weeks of life cycle. In his eagerness to help the pupa ,the man had destroyed a beautiful life! 

Struggle helps us all in our lives. It is that effort we put in to overcome difficulties in life, that actually builds us .

Always be Positive

Once upon a time there was a bunch of tiny frogs who arranged a running competition. The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower. A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants. The race began… Honestly, No one in crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower. crowd yelled statements such as: “Oh, WAY too difficult!!!” “They will NEVER make it to the top.” “Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!”

 The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one. Except for those, who in a fresh tempo, were climbing higher and higher. The crowd continued to yell, “It is too difficult!!! No one will make it!” More tiny frogs got tired and gave up. But ONE continued higher and higher and higher. This one wouldn’t give up! At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the one tiny frog who, after a big effort, was the only one who reached the top! Then all of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it?

A contestant asked the tiny frog how he had found the strength to succeed and reach the goal? It turned out. That the winner was DEAF!!!

Never get influenced by your surroundings  because at times they take your most wonderful dreams and wishes away from you — the ones you have in your heart! Always think of the power words have. Because everything you hear and read will affect your actions!

Therefore, ALWAYS BE POSITIVE!

Secret of Happiness

Once a large group of people were attending a seminar.

Suddenly the speaker stopped and started giving each person a balloon. Each one was asked to write his/her name on it using a marker pen. Then all the balloons were collected and put in another room. Now these delegates were let in that room and asked to find the balloon which had their name written, within five minutes.

Everyone was frantically searching for their name, pushing, colliding with each other, and there was utter chaos. At the end of 5 minutes, no one could find their own balloon. Now each one was asked to randomly collect a balloon and give it to the person whose name was written on it. Within minutes everyone had their own balloon.

The speaker began: This is exactly happening in our lives. Everyone is frantically looking for happiness all around, not knowing where it is. Our happiness lies in the happiness of other people. Give them their happiness, you will get your own happiness

What really matters !!!

A vacationing American businessman standing on the pier of a quaint coastal fishing village in southern Mexico watched ,as a small boat with just one young Mexican fisherman pulled into the dock. Inside the small boat were several large tuna. Enjoying the warmth of the early afternoon sun, the American complimented to the Mexican on the quality of his fish.

"How long did it take you to catch them?" the American casually asked. "Oh, a few hours," the Mexican fisherman replied. "Why don't you stay out longer and catch more fish?" the American businessman then asked. The Mexican warmly replied, "With this I have more than enough to meet my family's needs." The businessman then became serious, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

Responding with a smile, the Mexican fisherman answered, "I sleep late, play with my children, watch ball games, and take siesta with my wife. Sometimes in the evenings I take a stroll into the village to see my friends, play the guitar, sing a few songs..."

The American businessman impatiently interrupted, "Look, I have an MBA from Harvard, and I can help you to be more profitable. You can start by fishing several hours longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra money, you can buy a bigger boat. With the additional income that larger boat will bring, before long you can buy a second boat, then a third one, and so on, until you have an entire fleet of fishing boats."

Proud of his own sharp thinking, he excitedly elaborated a grand scheme which could bring even bigger profits, "Then, instead of selling your catch to a middleman you'll be able to sell your fish directly to the processor, or even open your own cannery. Eventually, you could control the product, processing and distribution. You could leave this tiny coastal village and move to Mexico City, or possibly even Los Angeles or New York City, where you could even further expand your enterprise."

Having never thought of such things, the Mexican fisherman asked, "But how long will all this take?" After a rapid mental calculation, the Harvard MBA pronounced, "Probably about 15-20 years, maybe less if you work really hard."

"And then what, senior?" asked the fisherman. "Why, that's the best part!" answered the businessman with a laugh. "When the time is right, you would sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions." "Millions? Really? What would I do with it all?" asked the young fisherman in disbelief.

The businessman boasted, "Then you could happily retire with all the money you've made. You could move to a quaint coastal fishing village where you could sleep late, play with your grandchildren, watch ball games, and take siesta with your wife. You could stroll to the village in the evenings where you could play the guitar and sing with your friends all you want."

Know what really matters in life, and you may find that it is already much closer than you think.

The salt vendor and the donkey

There was a salt vendor in a village. He used to buy salt from a nearby town. He had a donkey to carry this salt load. There were many streams to be crossed to reach the town. One day, the vendor was returning after his purchase. The donkey was loaded with salt bags. While they were crossing a stream, accidentally the donkey slipped and fell into the stream. A lot of salt got dissolved in the water. When the donkey got up the load became very light. From that day, whenever the vendor returned from town after the salt purchase, the donkey began to tumble half-way across one stream or the other. The vendor became suspicious.

Once the vendor purchased bales of cotton and loaded his donkey with bales of cotton. The donkey felt the load to be unusually light. He thought "Today, I am going to tumble and this load is going to become much lighter". On their way home, as usual, the donkey tumbled and fell into a stream. But alas! When the donkey tried to get up, the load pulled the donkey down. The cotton had absorbed water and become heavier. The vendor had to beat the  donkey for it to get up and walk. From then on, the donkey never tumbled while crossing streams.

More often, it’s when we try to shy away from things that it backfires. It’s always better to face things as it is!

The Touchstone

When the great library of Alexandria burned, the story goes, one book was saved. But it was not a valuable book; and so a poor man, who could read a little, bought it for a few coppers. The book wasn’t very interesting, but between its pages there was something very interesting indeed. It was a thin strip of vellum on which was written the secret of the “Touchstone”! The touchstone was a small pebble that could turn any common metal into pure gold. The writing explained that it was lying among thousands and thousands of other pebbles that looked exactly like it. But the secret was this: The real stone would feel warm, while ordinary pebbles are cold.

So the man sold his few belongings, bought some simple supplies, camped on the seashore, and began testing pebbles. He knew that if he picked up ordinary pebbles and threw them down again because they were cold, he might pick up the same pebble hundreds of times. So, when he felt one that was cold, he threw it into the sea. He spent a whole day doing this but none of them was the touchstone. Yet he went on and on this way. Pick up a pebble. Cold – throw it into the sea. Pick up another. Throw it into the sea.

The days stretched into weeks and the weeks into months. One day, however, about mid-afternoon, he picked up a pebble and it was warm. He threw it into the sea before he realized what he had done. He had formed such a strong habit of throwing each pebble into the sea that when the one he wanted came along, he still threw it away.

So it is with opportunity. Unless we are vigilant, it’s easy to fail to recognize an opportunity when it is in hand and it’s just as easy to throw it away. May you be vigilant enough to recognize the right opportunity for you!

Challenges

Once, a Shah was riding in his palanquin through the town, looking through the window at the scurrying people. Suddenly, he saw a lonely dervish sitting in the middle of the crowd, who was smiling and looking happy about something. The dervish was dressed poorly, and except the saucer for hand-outs he had nothing else besides him. The shah rode past him and soon forgot what he saw.

After a few days, the Shah had to go the same way again, where he saw the same dervish again, completely happy, dozing with blissfully closed eyes. The next day, Shah chose the same way on purpose, to see if the dervish will be in his place and again the image was the same. Intrigued, the Shah was going the same way almost every day and every time he found the dervish in the same spirit.

Finally, unable to stand it anymore, the Shah came out from the palanquin and addressed the imperturbable dervish with these words, “Why are you always smiling? Almost every day I see you here and it seems that you are absolutely happy.”

“Exactly, my master.” said the dervish with a smile.

Shah was surprised and asked, “Why are you happy? Do you have any money?”

“I don’t have anything, my master. Maybe during the day a little bit will fall in for food.”

“Do you have a home or a family?”

“Neither this and nor that. I wander the world as the wind.”

“Maybe then, you have good heath?”

“Absolutely not, my master, from the cold of the night my bones ache often and almost all of my teeth have fallen out.”

“What makes you so happy then? Tell me. Maybe your recipe for happiness will be useful to me. I have everything, but I’m unhappy.”

“God never sends more challenges for one person than he can handle. And burdens a person only with those circumstances, which at that moment, are most useful for his development. I accept that the best thing for me now is what I am, where I am and what is happening with me. I accept it with gratitude and a smile, if necessary with resistance and patience, and if possible, I try to understand what God is trying to say to me with it and in which direction should I move with my development. The realization of it doesn’t make me absolutely happy, but I have a clear horizon opening in front of me, free from the rainy curtains and filled with the sunny light of awareness.”

Don’t let challenges pull you down, every challenge in life is an opportunity to bounce back higher!

Useful financial tips

Some very important financial tips that everyone should know ....

1. Avoid buying property on loans as it eats most of your earnings unless you have a clear plan for its repayment. It's important to monitor cash flow. Though, t he house will be your asset, your liability will be much more.

2. Start a SIP at a very young age. Try to save atleast 15–25 % of your earnings.

3. Avoid buying a car unless you use it everyday.

4. Do not let this sentence scare you. “Mutual fund investment are subject to market risk. Please read the offer documents carefully before investing”. Most people avoid investing in mutual funds just because of this one warning. Yes, there is a market risk, but look at the history and growth of mutual funds.

5. Try having a simple wedding.

6. Atleast 20% of your wealth should be liquid so you can utilize it when necessary.

7. Considering inflation, you are actually losing money if it is in savings bank account. Do not keep huge money in savings bank account.

8. If you invest in stocks, pay due attention.

9. If you invest in stocks have a separate account for delivery investment and Intraday investment. It is easy to monitor this way and also makes tax calculation easy

10. Do not have a belief that property and car make you rich. Its what you save and invest, that is important.

11. Never invest in insurance for returns. Insurance is not an investment option. It is a risk management tool.

12. Never use credit cards for lavish spending. Use credit cards intelligently and for needs not for wants.

13. Cancel all credit cards before you die. Or inform family about all your accounts, credit cards, loans and saving now itself.  Even a small residue will cost your family much.

14. Invest on yourself and then on other investments.

15. Always try to balance your earnings with your savings first, then on  spending and loans. Never take unnecessary loans. Always have reserve and utilise them and unless no other go never take loan.

16. Always have a plan for future events on your career, life, spending and finance.

17. Always have a reserve on your savings for contingency and urgent situations.

18. Your personal life and health are the most important investment. Do have a regular health check and do healthy workout every day. Stay healthy and live happily.

19. Always remember death can come anytime.....so please do buy adequate term Insurance if you have dependents.

20. Prepare a Will. It may avoid unnecessary fights after you die.

Patience

Once, a king announced that anyone who wanted the post of personal assistant must meet him. Many people gathered in the palace. The king led them to a pond and said, "Whoever will fill this pond's water in this pot will be chosen for the post. But remember, there is a hole in the pot." So some people left without a single try. While some people tried for once and then said, "The king has already chosen someone else. Let's go." 

But one man kept filling the pot with pond water patiently. He filled the water in the pot from the pond and came out on the ground. But always within few moments, the water poured on the ground completely. He tried that uncountable numbers of times. At last the pond became empty. The man found a diamond ring in the empty pond and he gave it to the king. At this the king said, "This ring is a reward for your patience and hard work. You are fit for the job." 

No matter how much time you put in, patience is always rewarded.

The missing goat

It all started one lazy Sunday afternoon in a small town. Two school-going friends had a crazy idea. They rounded up three goats from the neighborhood and painted the numbers 1, 2 and 4 on their sides. That night they let the goats loose inside their school building. The next morning, when the authorities entered school, they could smell something was wrong. They soon saw goat droppings on the stairs and near the entrance n realized that some goats had entered building.

A search was immediately launched and very soon, three goats were found. But the authorities were worried,  where was goat No. 3? They spent the rest of the day looking for goat No.3 .The school declared classes off for the students for the rest of the day The teachers, helpers, guards,  canteen staffs, boys were all busy  looking for the goat No. 3,  which, of course, was never found. Simply because it did not exist

Those among us who inspite of having a good life are always feeling a "lack of fulfilment"  are actually looking for the elusive, missing, non-existent  Goat No.3. We feel that the absence of something  is always larger than  the  presence of other things. Let's stop worrying about goat No.3. Enjoy life with what you have.

Nothing is useless

A disciple of Buddha, said, "Oh Master! I have a request to make."

Buddha: "What is it; tell me?"

Disciple: "My robe is worn out. It is no longer decent enough to wear. Please, may I have a new one?"

Buddha looked at the disciple's attire and found that the garment was absolutely in tatters and really needed replacement. So he asked the store-keeper to give a new robe to this disciple.

The disciple offered obeisance to the great master and left the room.

Buddha kept thinking about the incident and felt that he had perhaps missed an opportunity to teach a valuable lesson to the disciple. So he went to the disciple's quarters to talk to him.

Buddha: Are you comfortable in your new robe? Do you need anything else?

Disciple: Thank you Master. I am very comfortable and do not need anything else.

Buddha: Now that you have a new one, what have you done with the old one?

Disciple: I have used it to replace my worn out bedspread.

Buddha: What did you do with the old bedspread?

Disciple: Master, I am using it as a curtain on my window.

Buddha: Did you discard your old window curtain?

Disciple: Master, I tore it into four pieces and am using them as napkins to handle the hot pots and pans in the kitchen.

Buddha: What about the old kitchen napkins?

Disciple: We are using them as mops to wash and wipe the floor.

Buddha: Where is the old mop?

Disciple: Lord, the old mop was so tattered that the best we could do was to take all the threads apart and make wicks for your oil lamp. One of them is presently lit in your room."

Buddha was content. He was happy that His disciples realized that nothing is useless. We can find a use for everything, if only we want to! Nothing should be wasted; not even time!

If all of us were to practice the habit of thrift, we can preserve the non-renewable resources for our children, our grandchildren and our great grandchildren as our forefathers so thoughtfully did for us.

Not everything deserves your time and attention

An elephant took a bath in a river and was walking on the road. When it neared a bridge, it saw a pig fully soaked in mud coming from the opposite direction. The elephant quietly moved to one side, allowed the dirty pig to pass and then continued its onward journey.

The unclean pig later boasted to its friends in arrogance, "See how big I am; event the elephant was afraid of me and moved to onsite to let me pass".

On hearing this, some elephants questioned their friend, the reason for its action. Was it out of fear? The elephant smiled and replied, "I could have easily crushed the pig under my leg but I was clean and the pig was very dirty. By crushing it, my leg would have become dirty and I wanted to avoid it. Hence, I moved aside."

Realized souls will avoid contact with negativity not out of fear but out of desire to keep away from impurity though they are strong enough to destroy the impurity.

You need not react to very opinion, every comment or every situation. Kick the dram and keep going ahead. Choose your battles wisely. Not everything deserves your time and attention.

Stay Calm

Once Buddha was walking from one town to another town with a few of his followers. While they were traveling, they happened to pass a lake. They stopped there and Buddha told one of his disciples, “I am thirsty. Please get me some water from that lake there”.

The disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed that some people were washing clothes in the water and, right at that moment, a bullock cart started crossing the lake right at the edge of it. As a result, the water became very muddy, very turbid. The disciple thought, “How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink?!” So he came back and told the Buddha, “The water in there is very muddy. I don’t think it is fit to drink”.

So, the Buddha said, let us take a little rest here by the tree. After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get him some water to drink. The disciple obediently went back to the lake. This time he found that the lake had absolutely clear water in it. The mud had settled down and the water above it looked fit to be had. So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to the Buddha.

Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said, “See, You let the water be and the mud settled down on its own. You got clear water. It didn’t require any effort”.

Your mind is also like that. When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own. You don’t have to put in  effort to calm it down. We can judge and take the best decisions of our life when we stay calm.

Take care

A cobbler lived in a large village, he was the only cobbler in town, so he was responsible for repairing everyone’s boots.

However, he didn’t have time to repair his own boots. This wasn’t a problem at first, but over time, his boots began to deteriorate and fall apart. While he worked feverishly on everyone’s boots, his feet got blisters and he started to limp. His customers started to worry about him, but he reassured them that everything was fine. However, after a few years, the cobbler’s feet were so injured that he could no longer work and no-one’s boots got repaired. 

As a consequence, soon the entire town started to limp in pain, all because the cobbler never took the time to repair his own boots.

This simple principle is so often disregarded. If you are in a responsible position and are one of the important links in the groups survival chain and if you  do not look after yourself, after a while you’ll be no good to anyone else either. Your best intentions will mean nothing and you’ll be unable to do what you’re meant to do.

This goes for leaders, social workers, teachers, even parents, breadwinners and homemakers!

If you don’t take the time to care for yourself, no-one else will. Are you taking care of yourself?

Karma

One day, Buddha was sitting with his disciples. One of them asked him "What is Karma?"

Buddha said, "Let me tell you a story..."

A king was touring his kingdom on his elephant. Suddenly he stopped in front of a shop in the market and said to his minister, "I don't know why, but I want to hang the owner of this shop." The minister was shocked. But before he could ask the king why, the king had moved on.

The next day, the minister went to that shop dressed as one of the locals to see the shopkeeper. He casually asked him how his business was faring. The shopkeeper, a sandalwood merchant, reported sadly that he had hardly any customer. People would come to his shop, smell the sandalwood and then go away. They would even praise the quality of the sandalwood but rarely buy anything. His only hope was that the king would die soon. Then there would be a huge demand for sandalwood for performing his last rites. As he was the only sandalwood merchant around, he was sure the king's death would mean a windfall.

The minister now understood why the king had stopped in front of this shop and expressed a desire to kill the shopkeeper. Perhaps, the shopkeeper's negative thoughts had subtly affected the king, who had, in turn, felt the same negative thoughts arising within.

The minister; a nobleman, pondered over the matter for a while. Without revealing who he was or what had happened the day before, he expressed a desire to buy some sandalwood. The shopkeeper was pleased. He wrapped the sandalwood and handed it over to the minister.

When the minister returned to the palace, he went straight to the court where the king was seated and reported that the sandalwood merchant had a gift for him. The king was surprised. When he opened the package, he was pleasantly surprised by the fine golden color of the sandalwood and its agreeable fragrance. Pleased, he sent some gold coins to the sandalwood merchant. The king also felt sorry in his heart that he had harbored unbecoming thoughts of killing the shopkeeper.

When the shopkeeper received the gold coins from the king, he was astounded. He began to proclaim the virtues of the king who had, through the gold coins, saved him from the brink of poverty. After some time, he recalled the morbid thoughts he had felt towards the king and repented for having entertained such negative thoughts for his own personal goal.

If we have a good and kind thought for another person, that positive thought will come back to us in a favorable way. But if we harbor evil thoughts, those thoughts will come back to us as retribution.

"What is Karma?" asked Buddha

Many replied, "our words, our deeds, our feelings, our actions......"

Buddha shook his head and said "Your thoughts are your Karma!"

The donkey and the farmer

One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey. He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and begin to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement, he quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that fell on his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up.

Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off!

Life doesn’t stop with a challenge, it actually starts when we overcome it!