There is an old fable that gets shared about a girl who was undertaking a journey across the desert to another town, the journey itself is next to impossible – she is faced with extreme weather conditions, dangerous natural threats in the form of deadly animals, and to add to it a hostile environment often traversed and monitored by bandits.

The story goes that she set out on a week long journey with nothing more than a day’s meal, a cloak, and a staff.

Throughout her journey she came across reptiles, a group of travelling bandits and a large wall that barricaded the bandits’ territory

A week later, she walked into the other town – unscathed.  Upon finding out where she’d come from, people wanted to know how this girl made it across the deadly terrain?

Her response was a lesson in resilience

They asked: Why did you only pack a day’s meal?

She said: To hunt for my next meal – knowing that I will encounter predators along the way I wanted to see them as my prey

They asked: How did you elude bandits?

She said: I didn’t – I wore a cloak of sand and walked across the desert.  I traveled in patterns towards the sunlight – from behind I can hear them but they cannot see me, from far ahead I could see them before they could see me.

They asked: How did you survive the night?

She said: I tented my cloak on my staff tightly enough to barricade myself from predators

They asked: how did you get above the wall?

She said: I used the sand to create a mount which I dug my staff into and I leaned it on the wall using it as a branch to climb just high enough to reach the edge and pull myself over.

Lastly they asked: Why did you succeed (with far less) when many before you have failed (with far more)?

She said: I did not attempt to avoid the challenges facing me, for my survival I made them a necessity.