THE LESSON FROM A DONKEY

I think this is a great followup to my previous post ....

THE LESSON FROM A DONKEY

One day 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.


He invited all his neighbours 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. 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 neighbours 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 stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

MORAL :
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well 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 these simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred - Forgive.

2. Free your mind from worries - Most never happen.

3. Live simply and appreciate what you have.

4. Give more.

Gratitude is the Key to Happiness

If you are a regular blog reader of mine you will know that I'm not one to dwell on the negative side of life and that I see obstacles as opportunities. For me most of the obstacles have been opportunities for personal growth and also what has developed my strong belief that gratitude is the key to happiness. Even in the negative events that we have in our lives there is always something positive to come out of it - you just need to change the way you look at these things. It is so empowering and freeing when we don't allow set backs, hardships etc to get us down. We don't have to be a victim of our life.

Last year HER Business magazine put a call out for Kiwi Business Women who had overcome hardships to be successful. (Success is quite subjective in my opinion) I decided that even though I don't dwell on the darker side of life I would like to take the opportunity to tell my story in the hopes that it might help other women out there who are going through what I have been through. That they will see you can get through these things and have a great life on the other side. To show what can be achieved through passion, vision and determination and hopefully by sharing my story inspire others to never give up on their dreams.

My story was simple really - in the past year I had gone from redundant Registered Nurse and solo mother to award winning business owner that had helped raise $85,000 for various charities in the past 14months. Ok maybe not that impressive in the scheme of things but add in various dramas over the last 5 years including (in no particular order) - depression, divorce, infidelity, betrayal, physical assault, 2 redundancies, major surgery x 2, broken ankle, sexual assault, corruption, sour business partnership, stalkers, hacking, malicious attacks, broken engagement, court cases, custody battles, .....

in fact my life was like a really bad soap opera ... Move over Shortland Street ... Actually at times my friends, family and I could only laugh as some of the things that happened were just so surreal.

It was a really hard decision to make to share some of the things that had happened in my life as they are deeply personal. There were things that I asked not be put in the article for that reason and also to protect identities and reputations of the other people involved. I wanted to maintain my integrity and my reason for speaking out wasn't to slur them but to give hope to other women who may have gone through the same.

So here is the article which is out now in the February 2010 issue on HER Business Magazine. (Thanks to my gorgeous boy Ryan for taking the photo of his mum)

Bajidoo Bangles feature artists Sophia Elise and Lauryne Hart

I did have good intentions to restart my regular blogging this year - unfortunately with injuring my ankle and then having hip surgery it's been off to a slower start than I would have liked. Just doing a bit of catching up now that I can sit at the computer for a short time.

Here is an article that the North Shore Times ran a couple of weeks ago. Lauryne is a fabulous artist and fellow NZ Art Guild member - she has an exhibition now showing at the Bruce Mason Centre, Takapuna Auckland until the end of Feb. Take the time to go and see it.