Shake It Off And Stamp It Down

I was watching the news and thinking how bad things are in the world right now. Some people think that not enough gets reported. I’m pretty sure we couldn’t handle it if everything was reported all the time. We would be in bad news overload! It’s hard enough to shoulder the world’s bad news while trying to struggle through your own personal circumstances don’t you think?

What circumstances? We all have circumstances, some big and some small but we all have them just the same. The key for me in dealing with difficulties is to do my best to keeping things in perspective. You know, my drinking from the well philosophy (no glass half full for me thank you very much).

I once heard this story and it made me think of the difference between giving up and having hope. I hope it gives you something to think about:

There was a farmer who was walking along a road leading a donkey. It had been a long day and they were walking back from town where the farmer had gone to buy a new shovel and other miscellaneous items.

As they were walking along a bee stung the donkey and startled it so badly that it took off and ran off into the ditch. Now along each side of the road where they were traveling, there were deep drainage ditches. The farmer didn’t know what he was going to do. Here was his donkey in a ditch so deep the top of its head was level with the road! All you could see were his ears sticking up!

No matter how much the farmer pulled, yelled or pleaded, he was unable to get the donkey out of the ditch. He finally gave up. Determined that all was lost and since the donkey was going to die of starvation anyway, he may as well just go ahead and bury him. The farmer leaned down, got the shovel from where the donkey was carrying it on it's back and started shoveling dirt over the top of him.

The farmer was so intent on what he was doing, he did not notice that every time he threw a shovel full of dirt on the donkey, the donkey would shake it off of his back and stamp it down. The farmer shoveled, the donkey shook and stamped. Eventually so much dirt had been shoveled, shaken off and stamped down that the donkey was now almost level with the road and it walked right out of his would be grave.

The farmer had been so intent on putting the donkey out of his misery that he paid no attention to what was happening. Needless to say, the farmer was amazed and couldn’t wait to get back home to tell his family what had happened.     

I guess I am saying all that to say this:  When you are in a rut and life is shoveling crap on you, shake it off and stamp it on down the best you can. Eventually you will be able to step out of your circumstances and carry on with your journey.