One of my favorite workshops I developed and teach is called Spirit Signs. In it, I suggest that songs in your head may have a personal message for you - perhaps a validation or a reminder of something you should be aware of. Keeping that in mind, I told myself it may be important at this time to be more aware of the assumptions I make.
Well, I arrived at work one morning last week to the macabre discovery of a pile of human feces left on the parking pad near the back door of our building. How did I know it was human feces, you ask? Well, "Midnight Pooper" had wiped his butt with a couple Quizno's napkins that were left scattered around the offending pile. Dogs generally don't do that.
The very sight of that putrid pile invoked many thoughts and feelings. My first reaction was one of disgust and nausea. My second was a sense of total relief with the sudden realization that as a meager tenant, it probably wasn't my job to clean it. Someone else will surely take care of that business.
In Spirit Signs, I suggest that when something appears in your life that invokes any kind of strong reaction, it has a potential double role as a message sent by Spirit. This message can provoke a new idea or awareness that will benefit you in some area of your life. Sometimes it is a "Yay, You!" kind of message, and sometimes it is a kick in the pants. It's like a nudge from God.
The Universal Law of Symbolism - taken from the Universal Laws of Conscious Creation Wisdom Book by Dana DaPonte, Lara Solara and me - states:
"There are no coincidences, and everything present in your environment is there for a reason. Everything is meaningful. The Universe is in constant communication with you through the objects, people and circumstances that make up your environment. By learning to look more deeply into the symbolic meaning of your surroundings, you can participate in this communication."
To harmonize with the Law of Symbolism, you should ask yourself; "If the
Universe were using this object to communicate with me, what would the
message be?"
I thought about that and I wondered who was going to clean that mess up, and how they would feel about it. Poop Scooper...have you been feeling like you have been cleaning up other people's sh*t in other areas of your life? There's a good chance that Poop Scooper may not have seen the gift in this situation, this message from the Universe. But if he/she had, they would have been pushed to examine their roles within some of their existing relationships on another level. Maybe P.S. was being given an opportunity to get up close and personal with their feelings regarding having to clean up after others. Maybe this is a trend for them, and they are unable to see that they are taking on other people's problems as their own, and it could be costing them financially, emotionally or physically.
But I especially wondered about Midnight Pooper...why poop there? Was this a premeditated and deliberate act? I suddenly recalled a previous day's brief conversation with one of the construction workers renovating a portion of our building. He had mentioned something about a "bum" who had been lurking around the trucks earlier that day. Construction Worker appeared pretty agitated about the whole thing. Was there an altercation? Were there words spoken? Perhaps this was a homeless man's most poetic way to get his point across and make his feelings known.
If it were a homeless person, he/she wouldn't own a toilet. I had to imagine that scenario for a moment and tried to imagine what that would be like. Everyday would pose the problem of where to eliminate. I felt empathy. Strangely, I somehow wanted to believe in the innocence of Pooper. He/she is simply a victim of his/her circumstances. That somehow, s/he couldn't help himself, s/he just had to go.
I settled in my mind (because for some reason I needed to settle my mind about this) that this must have simply been a crime of opportunity. Currently, there is large dumpster located behind the building to accumulate the renovation debris. It provides a private little nook at the back wall where one could squat leisurely, hidden from the prying eyes of the other back lane wanderers and tenants whose apartment windows face into the lane.
The Universal Law of One states that we are all one and interconnected. This means I am One with Midnight Pooper, as well as the Pooper Scooper.
On a metaphoric level, I have experienced some Midnight Poopers myself. I'm sure you have, as well. I've encountered them in business, and also in my personal life. Sometimes it has cost me dearly. I realized that in those cases, I also wanted to believe in their innocence, that they couldn't help themselves and it was simply my bad luck to be there to clean up after them.
But, wait...according to the Law of One, then I must also be a Midnight Pooper! Does my accountant see me as an M.P. when I dump years of receipts and paper on her lap? And how about my colleagues Lynn and Sarah, do they see me as a Midnight Pooper when I let the coffee cups pile up at work and leave the workshop space in disarray because I was too tired to clean the night before? How about my boyfriend, who's previously tidy condo is now littered with stacks of books, papers and metaphysical oddities since I moved in four months ago? I suddenly found a new perspective of myself, and some gentle reminders to pull up my socks, wash the dishes and do my paperwork.
These mirrors were very effective in discovering who I have been lately, rather than who I think I am generally. Our perspectives of ourselves (and others) are easily colored by assumptions and illusions.
By lunchtime, the offending mess was cleaned, the only reminder of the occurrence was a thin dusting of kitty litter spread over the crime scene.
The following day, I arrived at work, the Midnight Pooper all but forgotten.
Until...
On my way to the garbage bin that afternoon, discovered a NEW pile of human excrement on top of the kitty litter. You have got to be kidding me, I thought. How bold! What audacity!
Suddenly, the Midnight Pooper didn't seem so innocent. Apparently, by my logic, one random poop was ok, but two poops two days in a row meant something entirely different. The shallow end of assumptions. I came to assume that the identity of the first and second pooper was one person...one villain. Yes, suddenly, the Midnight Pooper was a heinous villain.
Good grief, I thought, why can't you poop in a bag, or on a newspaper and then throw it in the dumpster? Suddenly I was really annoyed. The shallow end of assumptions.
According to the Universal Law of Reflection, what is happening inside of me and what is being shown to me in my outside environment are the same. During that two days, I was myself experiencing anger regarding some old situations where I was feeling saddled with the responsibility of Poop Cleaner. I examined some of my assumptions with the Pooper. In my own metaphoric Midnight Pooper experiences, I have first seen my Poopers as innocent beyond fault, allowing myself to be blind to their hidden agendas and deceit, even going so far as to make excuses for their behavior.
Then suddenly, the scale would tip and the once innocent now become guilty on all counts.
This was isn't working for me anymore. This process didn't fit into my ideals for personal accountability.
What about my apathy about it not being my "job" to clean up? Ouch. That was a tough mirror to see. Where else on the planet am I not contributing towards the clean up because it's not my mess?
The moral of this story? I'm not sure there is one. But I'm going to sum it up like this:
1. Don't leave your poop for someone else to clean up. Take responsibility for your poop.
2. If you find yourself cleaning up someone else's poop time and time again...maybe it's time to give them a shovel and walk away. It's time they learned to clean their own mess.
3. Poop is a part of life. Used correctly, it makes great compost. Used incorrectly, its a pollutant and carries disease.
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