An Old Donkey Tale: Seeing the good in the dirt thrown at you

Have you ever found yourself in self-pitying situations where you wonder why circumstances seem to develop against you, and the very people whom you trust or have served loyally, also turned their backs on you, and even go further to throw dirt at you? It is hard in such situations to see the good in anything, and it'd be so easy to wallow and self-destruct in self-pity..... But the truth is that, there is always some good behind every bad, and that, is usually a little realization away.

Consider the story of the old donkey that fell into an old disused well while wondering around the farm early one morning ... It kicked up such a noisy fuss it's hee-haw woke up the old farmer... The farmer studied the situation, felt helpless, and shook his head. He could not figure out how he could ever get the injured donkey out. To him, there was only one way out. Bury the donkey to get it out of its misery, and cover up the well so no one and no creature would ever fall into it again... So, he called out all his farm hands. After instructions, everyone started shovelling dirt into the well.

The donkey looked up in dismay, and couldn't help feeling awfully bad... "After all these years of serving my master, he is now going to give up on me and bury me alive!" ... As donkey shook its head feeling really hurt, the dirt keep raining down on its back....  Then, suddenly, a thought hit it... The dirt was raising the floor of the dry well. It didn't need to stand still and surrender to the situation. All it needed to do was to shake off the dirt as it rains down, and step on the rising level of dirt ..... The farmer and his farm hands eventually realized what was happening. The donkey was rising higher as they shovel more dirt at him.... They sped up the process, and eventually, the donkey could simply step out of the well, and was reunited with its master, who felt both bad and good, guilty yet relieved, about all that had happened.

What can we get from this story? 1) When people throw dirt at us, it may be that they don't know how else to respond to a situation. 2) It pays to quickly regain control of our emotions when things seem to be going against us. Anger, hurt, disappointment or self-pity can blind us to the good behind the seemingly bad. 3) We can turn dirt thrown at us into stepping stones to freedom. The more dirt gets thrown at us, the faster we get to freedom ;)

Did you get anything else from this story? If you do, please share.