A Fable Revisited

March 8, 2009

Dear Friends,

As I often mention—and did so again last week—everything can be a stepping stone to your higher good . . . if you want it to be. There is a fable I sometimes tell in my talks and workshops that is a wonderful illustration of this principle. And lately I have discovered that this visual metaphor is even more perfect than I realized.

Here’s the story:

“There was once a rancher who owned a donkey. This donkey was more of a pet than a work animal, and the rancher was sad to watch his beloved donkey grow increasingly feeble and blind as time went by.

One day, the rancher noticed the donkey hobbling across a field toward a bucket of oats. Between the donkey and the oats there was a dried-up well, which was encircled by a short stone wall.

The rancher was horrified when the donkey—being half-blind—stumbled over the wall and fell right into the well! The rancher ran out to the well, and looked down into the hole. But the hole was so deep, the rancher couldn’t see the bottom. So he listened carefully for sounds of suffering. But he never heard a thing.

The rancher finally assumed that the donkey must have died in the fall. And although the rancher was very sad about what had happened, he felt like this terrible accident might be a blessing in disguise. The donkey’s life had ended instantly, and the donkey no longer had to suffer the ever-increasing aches and pains of aging.

Since retrieving the donkey from the well would be extremely difficult, the rancher decided to make the well the donkey’s final resting place. He would fill in the dangerous hole, and then erect a small monument to the animal on that very spot.

Requiring help with this, the rancher asked his friends to bring over some loads of dirt, which they did. And after conducting a short, but touching memorial service, the rancher and his buddies began to shovel the dirt into the hole.

Well, guess what? Although the well no longer produced water, there was still six feet of mud in the bottom of the hole. And the mud had protected the donkey from harm! Other than being disoriented, and having his legs stuck in the mud, the donkey was perfectly fine! He wasn’t dead at all!

But then dirt starts falling on the donkey’s head! And on his back! And all around him! After a while, the dirt had piled up past the donkey’s knees. And that’s when instinct took over.

First with one leg, and then with the others, the donkey slowly pulled himself out of the mud, and stepped up onto the pile of dry dirt. As more dirt accumulated, the donkey stepped up again. And then again. And then again. Until finally, the ranchers were shocked to see the donkey’s head appear at the top of the well! What a delightful surprise!”

You get the point, of course. Quite literally, the dirt that was supposed to bury the donkey became his “stepping stone to a higher good!” And the metaphor for us is equally obvious:

We, too, blindly fall into holes. And when we think we’ve hit bottom, the world seems to add insult to injury and throws dirt on us. The difference between people and the donkey, though, is this: We often let the dirt pile up to our necks—or even over our heads—before we are open to seeing the next right step that is right in front of us.

Unlike the donkey, we spend all our time blaming the people who dug the hole, or shaming ourselves for stupidly falling into it. We rant and we rave about the injustice of it all, and in that judgmental state, we fail to notice that the very elements that make up our circumstance can provide us with a way out of our predicament.

But now I see that there is even more depth (and height) to the story than that. For when the donkey got to the top of the well, he was no closer to the oats than he was when he first fell into the hole. And so it may be for you.

Although it is possible for the divine flow to instantly open a portal that leads directly from the bottom of the well to the goal that you are trying to reach, more often than not, the next right step that you will be divinely guided to take will simply be a step that is designed to help rectify the situation that you are in.

There may be a step that helps you heal emotionally, a step that helps you grow spiritually, or a step that helps restore something that was damaged or lost . . . but those steps won’t necessarily move you any closer to your chosen destination.

There are consequences to going through life blindly—that is, making choices based on fear and ego, rather than continually seeking divine guidance. And when you fall into a hole, there may be quite a few steps that have to be taken, and quite a bit of time that might have to pass, before you feel like you are once again heading toward your dream.

Whether it’s a step that heals something, reveals something, or repairs something, it’s a great comfort to know that the divine flow is continually providing you with what you need to lift you up, before it once again guides you toward your goal with effortless ease.

Remember, though, it’s up to you to recognize that step when it appears. May you be open and receptive to identifying your next right step now . . . and be willing to take it . . . and to take the one after that . . . and the one after that . . . and the one after that.

Steven

© 2009 by Steven Lane Taylor
Author of Row, Row, Row Your Boat:
A Guide for Living Life in the Divine Flow
www.rowrowwrow.com