I just scooped the poop in the coop (6 trash cans of shoveling but those $100 eggs are so worth it I swear…get chickens they said, it’ll be fun they said) and I was thinking about how much number two has taught me the past few years.
Let me start by saying that stepping in “it” literally, doesn’t faze me so much anymore. It’s warm squishy softness, a reminder of how excrement can fertilize both the soul and the soil in ways unexpected.
The smelliness of life definitely will force you to be faced with a time sensitive problem and you are going to have to ask yourself “What am I going to do about it?”
The fact is, sometimes life serves up a big old poo-poo platter. You know those days where everything is a little stinky, something smells fishy, poo hits the fan and maybe even you stepped in the you-know-what?
I bet you know exactly what I'm referring to and probably something came instantly to mind because these tend to be memorable moments.
Maybe, it’s trivial things like UPS losing a package, your ink pen bleeding all over your favorite leather chair, the insanity of trying to get through to a real human with a brain in the customer service world of technology always going awry, the sure thing becoming not so sure, the deal that went south, your car breaking down on the way to somewhere important while in a storm, or a skunk dying by your mailbox that, even after the crows were done cleaning up, made being outside hard to endure for weeks. (how can something so cute smell so bad, the most underrated weapon in the animal kingdom)
Then the not-so trivial things happen like the bad news call that comes in, the awareness of something not being as you thought or the loss of something significant that shatters reality.
Living in an old house the past few years left me with a stinky mess after a shit job where the toilet vent wasn’t installed properly followed by the yard dug up and the septic leach line accidentally severed. There is more, I’ll spare you the dirty details, but let’s just say there was a territorial bathroom battle of contractors to see who could be the smelliest scammiest of all!
When things like this happen, you must decide the best direction:
1. CLEAN IT UP: As a guardian of dogs, cats, chickens and ducks, I clean up a lot of poops. I don't like doing it. It stinks. If you have pets like me, you know that it is a necessary part of being a guardian, a part of life. Honestly, it’s an honor to share life with them and that means their little poopy messes too.
There will be messes that happen out of your control and it's the way you solve it when it arises that will show you what you are made of, after all, poop happens! Are you ready to rise to the challenge, clean up the mess and take ownership for finding solutions, even if whatever happened was not your fault, a chosen responsibility and/or out of your control, a metaphysical diarrhea?
Sometimes in this insane world I’ll catch background noise of the news somewhere and it jars me into a surreal feeling that I must be inside The Huger Games movie. The tyranny wreaking havoc on the world is enough to make anyone sick at their stomach, but so much is merely distraction, nonsense and sustains because of the attention and energy given to it.
You can’t even go anywhere in the digital or real world without someone trying to sell you something, but like the movie, They Live, all I see and hear is “buy my shit.” It’s a shit sandwich out there, you need to train your sniffer to smell all the bullshit, it’s a super power…no coincidink that dogs have this ability and are man’s best friend. I get it though, people are, for the most part, doing the best where they are at.
(I really hope you get the irony in the link to buy my shit, rosey smelling lotion is available just for you, but hurry because time is running out fast, LOL.)
I won’t even begin to discuss in this short article the shit smells of humans eating shitty food, shit is really a lucrative business. Alternative Health is selling enemas as the be-all ”end-all” (I “crack” myself up even if no one else laughs, Gen X kids had to entertain ourselves). Hershey’s kisses wrapped in tin foil were the first shit emoji…I love you so much I’m giving you this fake chocolate, tastes like shit, but damn that marketing is sweet.
All the jokes aside, there is always a way out, a way through, or a way in…you just have to look for it. Stop. Breathe. Go within. Listen. What really matters most? What can you do today in your own life, in your own environment to clean up the muck?
2. EMBRACE IT: Smells linger, but they also dissipate into the aether, so instead of holding your nose and fighting it, just embrace the suck. That's right, the challenge that you are facing is going to teach you something if you are willing to embrace it. You can pretend it's not there, eventually it “might” go away, but you will be missing an opportunity to grow. The roses smell so much sweeter having smelled their antithesis, so don't deny yourself the gift in this duality.
Sometimes the fumes of the toxic waste need to rise to the surface to be cleaned up. No amount of air freshener or trying to mask the smell will make it disappear, just try not cleaning out a litter box for a week and test this theory. Eventually you won’t be able to take it anymore and you will take action.
This goes for our own shit, individually and as a collective. We hide behind (physical and metaphysical) masks, procrastinate and lie to ourselves about so much. Holding it in instead of letting it go only pushes the toxic experience, memory, emotions deeper inside, but intuitively we know shit will hit the fan eventually. If you don’t deal with it, it will show up in a collective nightmare made manifest, health issues, or problems of some kind…you know, that thing called consequences.
On the world “stage” we watch a shit-show of horrors unfold and it’s a task of knowing whether to cry or laugh. The stench of fear wafts through the airwaves and takes a seat in the microbiome of men and women, overriding gut instincts, and swallowing backbones. The lotus can’t grow without the muck, the backbone can’t lengthen without facing the fear and the mask won’t hide the lingering rotten odor of madness. The whiff of freedom calls, will you pick up the phone?
These trying times bring foresight and insight that makes future challenges easier to navigate. You'll be able to appreciate the bouquet life offers knowing instinctively that you can move past it, because even when you are in the thick of it, the story is going to unfold whether you like it or not…might as well make it an opportunity instead of an oppootunity! :)
3. TURN IT INTO GOLD: The thing about cleaning up a lot of poops is that you begin to see how it's also gold, because it goes in the compost pile that then nourishes the growth of other things. It's like learning to wear rose colored glasses when the view is bleak and barren, not to ignore the reality but to seek the silver lining amidst the mayhem, to see possibilities beyond what's laid out in front of you.
Maybe stepping into poo is stepping into potential?
Alchemizing the shit life brings fertilizes the soul when you pick up a shovel and dig.
The world will distract you, tell you that you must always be striving and succeeding according to its definition, but when your toes step in the chaos of life, you’ll begin to see none of that stuff means shit!
Sometimes life stinks, it’s not meant to be an airy-fairy love and light parade in re(pu)diation of reality, but a response-ability to rise from the muck that makes the reward so much sweeter! Pyewwwww!
Finding the usefulness in the action of cleaning up a mess, solving a problem or being a guardian of a situation, a project, a being, becomes meaningful instead of mundane, impactful instead of impacted. It’s a beautiful strange poopy world after all!
Turning the stench into the sweet smell of victory on YOUR terms is a skill, an art form, an opportunity to shine. After all, manure is fertilizer, there is always a paradox.
I see how much happier and healthier my furry friends are when everything is clean and this makes me happy. We need so much less than we think to find joy!
So the next time you are handed a poo-poo platter, know you are being given a gift to grow something beautiful, to fertilize the soil and the soul.
I don’t necessary welcome the shit life brings, but it has pushed me to become better at showing up for the hard days, better at overcoming obstacles, better at finding emotional regulation, better at finding silver linings, better at recognizing when something good can be made out of what seems on the surface like a real S*!* show...but that's where the gold lives, that's where creativity rises up, that's where you get to choose to roll up your sleeves…or not.
Remember, a lot of people are full-of-it, self professed know-it-alls spewing information as the truth, those “experts” at it again, the white coat magicians and their magic pills, the black robe charlatans, the influenceres trying to be the shiniest object, or the philosophers of a gospel that sounds really good, but it’s too good to be true… you smell it don’t you…it’s shit.
As confucious “might” say if he were here: “Don’t listen to anyone but yourself, but be mindful of when you, too(two), are full of shit.”
P.S. Now don’t get me wrong, I do not know how plumbers, septic and waste workers deal with the literal aspect of this on a regular basis, they are a special kind of human, they probably deserve more hugs than they get, they are the forgotten alchemists, the undercover shamans of the world and the sacred clowns (que the butt-crack jokes). They have a stinky job that gives rise to our modern day comforts we so often take for granted…and this goes for you off-grid bucket poopers too, I see you, all of ya’ll are badasses, literally. ;-)
May your day smell like roses.
With love,
Angela
The Irrational Sage
Angelamorris.com