The Smart Ass

Isn’t it great to be alive? Life is all about choices. Some are easy. Some are difficult. Often we have no choice in the amount of crap life will throw at us. How we react to, and deal with it, though is definitely our choice. It is not a question of whether we will all face challenges… it’s a matter of when.

So next time it gets rough – as sometimes it surely will – you can lie down and take it if you want to. Or you can choose to be like the donkey in the story below.

As Oscar Wilde said “We are all of us lying in the gutter… but some of us are looking at the stars”.

The Smart AssOne day a farmer's donkey fell down into an old well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do.

The farmer couldn’t figure out a way to help his faithful friend without putting himself in danger. Finally, he decided that, as the animal was old, and that the well needed to be covered up anyway, it just wasn't worth the effort to retrieve the donkey.

Now the farmer couldn’t bear to do the dirty deed himself. So he invited some friends, who had more experience of covering things up, 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. The farmer couldn’t stand this and blocked his ears. Then, to everyone's amazement the donkey became quiet.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer's friends 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 jumped up over the edge of the well and defiantly trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the hole you are in is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a stepping stone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.

Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

Free your heart from hatred - Forgive.

Free your mind from worries - Most never happen.

Live simply and appreciate what you have.

Give more.

Expect less

Now, enough of that . . . The donkey later came back, and bit the farmer who had tried to bury him. The gash from the bite got infected and the farmer eventually died in agony from septic shock.

And the moral of this story…When you do something wrong, and try to cover your ass, it always comes back to bite you!