一根樹枝

A Branch

A man walking in the night slipped from a rock. Afraid that he would fall down thousands of feet, because he knew that place was a very deep valley, he took hold of a branch that was hanging over the rock. In the night all he could see was a bottomless abyss. He shouted, his own shout reflected back--there was nobody to hear.

You can imagine that man and his whole night of scare. Every moment there was death. His hands were becoming cold and he was losing his grip...and as the sun came out he looked down and he laughed. There was no abyss. Just six inches down there was a rock. He could have rested the whole night, slept well—the rock was big enough—but the whole night was a nightmare.

Fear is only six inches deep. Now it is up to you whether you want to go on cling to the branch and turn your life into a nightmare, or whether you would love to leave the branch and stand on your feet.

There is nothing to fear.

【助讀詞匯】

◇abyss n. 深淵；無底洞

◇nightmare n.夢魘，惡夢；恐懼的經歷，可怕的事件

【參考譯文】

一根樹枝

一個人在走夜路的時候從巖石上滑了下去，他趕緊抓住了巖石旁邊的一根樹枝，因為他知道這里是一個深谷，一不小心就會掉入千丈深淵。一整晚他能看到的就只有深不見底的峽谷。他大聲叫喊，可惜聽到的只有自己的回聲——這里根本就沒人聽得見他的叫喊。

你可以想象得到，這個人整夜都處在驚恐之中。隨時都有可能掉下去摔死。他的手漸漸變冷，快要抓不住了……當太陽升起的時候，他往下一看，笑了。這里根本就沒有深谷。就在在他腳下6英尺的地方有一塊石頭。他本來可以好好睡一個晚上的，因為那塊石頭足夠大，但是他卻整晚都處在噩夢之中。

恐懼僅僅是因為那6英尺導致的。現在輪到你了，你是要緊抓著樹枝，整晚都處在噩夢之中呢，還是希望把手從樹枝上松開，穩穩地站在地上?

其實，沒有什么好害怕的。

【人生啟迪】

生活中其實沒有什么可怕的，真正可怕的是失去自信！我們在遇到危險的時候千萬不要自己嚇自己，總往壞處想，應該保持冷靜，盡量用樂觀的心態去處理，這樣會收到意想不到的好結果。