The poop in my hand is moving!
message from Dung Beetle: talking about poop is no big deal
If you’re looking for a picture of the actual poop in this story, I was too busy flinging to think about snapshots.
We have two dogs and they both poop. They’re featured below in the order of poop pick-up simplicity:
Cuddle Biscuit
Cuddle Biscuit is a one-and-done pooper. Her poops are in a nice, wellformed stack of rope-shaped poops. Typically, they’re located in her favorite poop spots in our fenced-in back yard, so they’re also easy for me to find and pick up with the little dog poop bags on a roll.1
Dusty
Dusty uses a 3-step “poop walk” process:
After what feels like 30 minutes of sniffing, she produces a single, cigar-shaped poop, then pauses, takes a few steps, and considers her next location;
Upon selection of a nice grassy spot where the poop will be invisible and difficult for me to find later, she adds supplemental nuggets, each one a step or two away from the prior nugget; and
She finishes with a celebratory series of back foot kicks. She is very deliberate about the joyful kicks, choosing to do this celebration in an area of the yard she keeps clean for kicking and sniffing purposes, only.
The story.
It’s morning. Birds are chirping. Dogs are sniffing. I’m wearing my designated shoes for poop-scooping, and I have my hand in a dog poop bag, using it as a glove for the daily poop cleanup.2
A few poops in the palm of my hand (in the bag/glove), I look around the yard for more of Dusty’s difficult-to-find nuggets. My hand doesn’t breathe in the plastic bag so I try to be quick, but on this day it takes a minute to walk the length of the yard.
WAIT. Did something in the bag just move?
I stop walking. I concentrate on the poops in my palm. I am completely still and focused.
I felt it. SOMETHING MOVED IN THE POOP BAG.
Self-preservation kicked in and I instinctually tossed the poops from my hand, removed the “poop glove” and looked down at the poops. One of the poops had two holes bored into it.
Crap, there were bugs inside of the poop and I felt them in my hand!
Freaked-out and fascinated (but not enough to investigate further), I double bagged, picked up the poops quickly and left the back yard with haste.
Dung beetles.
Seriously, further talk about poop may be more than I can manage, but I feel compelled to share my favorite link about dung beetles because the map is awesome: National Geographic Kids.
I am grateful.
It’s true - I’m grateful that the dung beetles do their important dung processing work (cycle of life). I’m grateful that I have another motivation to scoop up the poops frequently before the beetles get involved.
My body had tucked away shame like soiled underwear buried in public restroom trash.
- Lori, Shame
Most importantly, as I prepare to begin a Spring Guided Ayurvedic Cleanse3 in a few days where paying attention to my own poop is part of the work, I am grateful for this milestone where talking about poop is no big deal. Throughout life, to me, poop and shame have been very closely associated with each other.
Ahhh, now this makes more sense.
Shamans believe (and I believe) that nature brings us messages when we need them the most. Without recognizing (until writing just now) Dung Beetle’s message, I was having trouble getting the moving-poop-in-my-palm situation out of my head. Now I get it.
Poop does not mean shame. Poop is part of living a healthy life.
Thank you, Dung Beetle. Message (finally) received.
I am grateful.
I use the kind of dog poop bag on a roll that is treated so it decomposes quickly. I believe the process works because sometimes the rolls start decomposing in the heat of my Jeep when I’ve left a roll in the door pocket over the summer.
Usually daily. Sometimes not due to rain or general laziness.
I’m currently in the pre-cleanse period of the Spring Guided Ayurvedic Cleanse by Woodland Wellness. I’ll be writing more about the experience as the cleanse progresses. At the moment, I’m calling attention to the cleanse because it is already helping. I’m more mindful of food and grateful for the workings of my body. PLUS I just had a talking-about-poop-is-no-big-deal-milestone. The combination of pre-cleanse mindfulness and Dung Beetle’s message brought this to the surface. (Link here for Fall Cleanse if you want to get on the wait list.) I feel FREE and LIGHTER like something has lifted off of my chest that has been heavy forever. I’m grateful.