Shake it off and step up!

Years ago, a farmer had an old mule. The mule's name was Ned.
For over 20 years, Ned had helped the farmer put in his crops, but now Ned was old and almost blind.
One day, one of the farmer's sons came running into the house. "Dad! Dad!" he yelled. "Ned has fallen into the old, abandoned well out back" What are we going to do?"
Dad and the boys ran to the well and surveyed the situation. Alas, it seemed there was no way to get the old mule out of the hold. The farmer told his sons, "We will just bury old Ned right here. After all, he is almost dead, and this hold needs to be filled up. We will kill two birds with one shot. Boys, go get the shovels."
Soon the boys were back, and they began to shovel dirt down onto old Ned. When the first dirt hit Ned's shoulder, it startled the old mule. He simply shook his shoulders as much as he could in his narrow confines. As each shovel full rained down, old Ned would shake off the dirt and step on it. Shovel after shovel of dirt came down on Ned, but he just kept shaking it off and packing it down with his hooves. Pretty soon, the well was almost full, and old Ned simply stepped up out of the the well to the safety off the ground. What was supposed to have buried him became his path to life and freedom.
As the dirt of situations and circumstances of life try to bury you, maybe we can follow the example of old Ned. Just shake it off and step up!

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