A sage old donkey and an inquisitive farmer shared a quiet village. One day, tragedy struck when the donkey fell down a well and became stuck and helpless. The farmer was in a tough spot and had to decide what to do about his donkey.

The farmer weighed the difficulty of saving the donkey and concluded that it wasn’t worth it since the well had run dry for a long time. To close the well, he gathered his neighbours and started filling the well with dirt. The donkey’s distressing cries resounded in the well as the downpour of mud continued.

The donkey, however, was not one to give up without a fight. It performed something astonishing as the dirt piled up on its back. The donkey shrugged off its burdens and advanced with each one. The farmer and his neighbours were astounded to see the donkey perform this feat again and again.

The more mud they threw at the donkey, the harder it worked. It refused to be submerged after repeated attempts. Instead, it took the chance to improve its situation. The donkey took bold strides upward, resisting the shadows that threatened to envelop it.

And then, seemingly out of nowhere, the donkey was standing on the well. It took a giant leap of freedom after freeing itself from its jail. The villagers, inspired by the donkey’s bravery, celebrated as it trotted away.

The donkey taught us a vital lesson in this parable: that despite our difficulties, we have the ability to rise above them. It’s possible that life will bury us under a mountain of doubt and difficulty. But like the donkey, we can choose to brush ourselves off and advance.

Inevitably, we will all face wells in our life, or times of great adversity and misery. However, it is precisely in such times that our resiliency becomes most apparent. We must resist the temptation to give in to adversity and instead view difficulties as learning experiences.

Keep in mind the dogged persistence of the donkey. Let us, when life seems to be squeezing us to death, brush off our anxieties and self-doubts and take one more step forward into our own freedom. In the same way that the donkey was able to escape the well’s constraints, we, too, may triumph over adversity if we keep the faith that our tenacity will ultimately set us free.