Ali lived in a village. His everyday work was to go to the forest and gather broken branches to sell as firewood. He always tried to get home before dark because he was so afraid of wild animals.

One day when he was in the woods very far from home, the weather suddenly turned dark and stormy. The downpour kept him from seeing correctly, and he became lost. He circled for hours. Suddenly, he saw two shiny eyes staring at him.

He couldn’t see correctly, but he realized it must a stray dog. Ali held a thick branch and got ready to fight the creature if it attacked.

The wild, stray dog did attack. In a tough battle he finally killed it and put its dead body on his shoulder to show his family how brave he was. By the time he found his way to the village it was almost morning. One of his neighbors spotted Ali carrying the beast on his shoulder, and screamed:

“Ali killed a leopard!”

When Ali leaned what he’d killed, he fainted. He’d been unable to see in the storm that the “wild dog” was a leopard. Otherwise, he’d have fainted right in front of the beast and easily become its meal!

Problems in life are exactly like that. Start fighting with them, no matter how big they are or how clearly you can see them. And don’t let fear stop you.

You are more powerful than you think.

Ξ

You can find Laleh’s Canada Book Award-winning Soroosh on Amazon worldwide.