Perseverance story: Shake it off — The Donkey in the Well story

Once upon a time, there was a farmer who had a small farm not far from a country village. The farmer didn’t have much, but from his small farm, he was able to support his family and was always willing to help his neighbors if they needed anything. One of the few things that he did own, was an old donkey. For years, the donkey had helped him plow his fields, carry his produce into the village, and harnessed to a cart to drive his family to church every Sunday. People in the village near where the farmer lived liked to celebrate all the annual festivals and for the coming new year decided to have huge fireworks. When planning for the New Year’s celebration nobody stopped to think about how this might affect their animals. New Year’s Eve finally came and all the villagers put their animals in the stables for the night, except the farmer near the village didn’t as he didn’t have a stable, he only had a paddock. When nighttime came the farmer closed the donkey in the paddock as he did every night and went to his family to the frontyard to watch the fireworks. The donkey not knowing what was going to happen slumbered peacefully when suddenly the sky exploded with weird flashes of light and loud noises. The poor donkey, not knowing what was going on, fled in terror, blindly running across the paddock trying to get out as far away as possible. As it happened, there was…