Dog people are strange. I can say that now because I’m one of them. It is a subculture with its own lingo, values, and needs.
Simple Rules, Complex Values
The rules are rather simple: you keep an eye on your dog and if the dog poops you pick it up. There’s a lot of judgment from the humans around these guidelines. A tsk, tsk when someone seems to be consumed by their phone or reads a paper as their dog runs to-and-fro. And nothing gets the dander up for a dog person more than not paying attention to, or picking up after your dog.
You would think this would be easy, but sometimes you lose the poop. Here’s how that happens. Your dog does their business, but for a split second you take your eyes off the prize and then you just cannot find it. And we dog people judge and silently berate those that do not scoop the poop. So, finding that package is key to your own happiness and acceptance from the dog people.
Early Morning Breakdown
One morning at 4:00 a.m. I am in the backyard searching for the missing bundle. Roxy is helping by giving me that look doggy look of embarrassment. As I am searching the ground with my flashlight (yes, I have a flashlight), I’m also realizing that I’m really searching for more…
It suddenly hits me how letting go is not so easy for me. And, right now, finding this poop is so important because if I can locate it then that means I can also recover all I have lost this year.
Finally it hits me – sometimes you just lose SH#% and you are going to have to be okay with that. All this non-acceptance and holding on is causing me great suffering. And then there is no chance of me locating the bundle because my eyes are full of tears.
You Get To Decide
Our lives are about choice. We have the right (and ability) to choose if we want to experience our wholeness and completeness, or not. This does not mean we engage in spiritual by-pass and pretend that all is well when we are collapsing inside. What it does mean is that we take time to tune in, find that place that has never been hurt and is whole and complete, and allow that to guide us.
Can you locate that part of you? Do you know the baseline of your Soul? I’ve found that sacred practice helps pinpoint these answers. You can click here to learn about one of my tools for sacred practice.
A couple of days later I walked into the dog park and a man holding a poop bag was looking around nervously. I asked, “You lost the poop didn’t you?”… “Yeah”, he said sheepishly. I kept walking and yelled back “that’s okay…sometimes you’ve got to let go of trying to find it.”