“Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don't look back at it too long. Mistakes are life's way of teaching you. Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals. No one wins them all, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of your growth. Shake off your blunders. How will you know your limits without an occasional failure? Never quit. Your turn will come.” ~Og Mandino
Today I draw some inspiration from a family friend. Her name is Belinda and she herself is a source of inspiration. Belinda is a woman who has survived a brain tumor not once but twice in her lifetime.
What she sent me was a story, much like many that circulate around but meaningful if you are in need of a lift. The story tells of one day when 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. So he invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began 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 each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake off the dirt 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 another step up.
Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!
Now the story does have a twist about the donkey coming back later and biting the farmer in the hindend, causing a fatal infection to the farmer. A moral about trying to cover up your mistakes that come back to bite you.
But what I draw from the story reminds me of Belinda and her fighting the brain tumors. We know and eventually accept that life is going to throw an obstacle in our way. Like the donkey, some dirt is going to get shoveled on you, lots of it and very different types of dirt.
The idea is to shake it off and keep moving. You need to turn the obstacles into stepping stones
. We can get beyond our circumstance not by stopping, but by never giving up!Belinda nearly lost her life years ago. Her husband Mark talks about it in my book CHANGED LIVES
of their fight and survival. Belinda did not stop and succumb to what others might have considered her fate. Not Belinda though, she kept moving and overcoming.Even when a growth was found again a year ago, she kept moving and the growth went away. A miracle? I believe they occur and in this case she is living proof of that. But we each can learn and take inspiration from Belinda's life experience.
Finally, in her story she sent me there were five simple rules for life.
1. Free your heart from hatred; learn to forgive.
2. Free your mind from worries; most never happen.
3. Appreciate what you have; you'll have so much more.
4. Give more; you'll get much more in return.
5. Expect less; you'll get what you need.
Get to know the stories of others that have been through the well, having dirt thrown down upon them by life. Then be inspired by them to jump start your own life.
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