Sh*t Has A Job
Weirdly, you’ll grow from this crappy experience
It’s been a tough couple of years.
Let’s call it what it really is.
Shit. Mountains of it.
My lovely 64-year-old aunt was diagnosed with cancer. She did everything she could to not die but she still died.
Two months later I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I spent over a year in treatment. I lost my breasts; half my income; my hair; self-confidence; and a few friends who proved not to be when they were faced with fire.
And that is just for starters.
I’ll spare you the gory details.
Let’s see what else counts as shit
A friend lost her house due to a series of unfortunate events.
Another old friend lost her home because she left a cigarette burning.
Her cat went missing too.
Another friend has lost all of her hair from stress. Every single hair from her head to her toes has gone MIA. Doctors have told her it is never coming back.
And another dear friend just found out she has a genetic disease that is the shitty root cause of all the major health issues she’s had her entire life.
She was told by a well-meaning doctor that she should feel lucky as most people with this condition have an average lifespan of 48 years.
Isn’t that precious.
She’s 58. She doesn’t feel lucky about winning the Lottery-of-Shit.
And she did have visions of hitting that doctor in the head with a cast-iron frying pan.
Think you’re safe from suffering because you have a positive attitude, meditate and drink celery juice?
Think again. Your turn hasn’t arrived yet.
Here’s the deal. I come from a long line of people who believe their cup is half-full.
But I learned something from my shitty experience of breast cancer and spending over 100 days in bed from chemo and having to get my hair in the mail (I called it Hair Mail).
It is difficult to see the pinpoint of light when you’re mired in the murky depths of your shitty experience.
Shit can hit you from any angle, at any age, at any time, and in any size, shape or form it decides to slam you with.
And it is NEVER convenient.
Shit pushes a gigantic PAUSE button on your life.
You just want to send this shit-o-gram back.
Years ago, a psychic looked at my Tarot cards, and then she looked at my hands.
She said,
“You’ve had some hardship, but you will find your way. Even from manure piles, flowers shall bloom.”
When she told me this, I thought,
“Whoa — I’ve heard this before!”
I’d heard it from my dad.
I am a farmer’s daughter.
Which means I grew up smelling shit from cows, pigs, chickens and bison.
When I told my quietly gruff and loving father that I’ve always hated the smell of farm shit, he said,
“You should love the smell. It put you through college.”
Har.
And then he said,
“You may not like it but shit has a job to do. It helps things grow.”
“All the world is full of suffering.
It is also full of overcoming.”
— Helen Keller
Even shit has a job.
I choose to use my shitty experiences as fertilizer.
Almost daily when I feel overwhelmed I tell myself to keep planting seeds.
I choose to look deeper into how this cancer experience has changed my life. I may have lost a few important body parts but I didn’t lose me.
“They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.”
— Mexican Proverb
I hope you can turn your shitty experiences into growth too. It doesn’t happen overnight but it does happen. Some people may call it a silver lining.
I see it for what it is: fertilizer.
I don’t know what shitty thing has happened to you. I can’t even imagine what you are going through.
But— I know you probably feel like shit.
There are so many ways for shit to appear. It could be death, debt, diagnosis or divorce.
Maybe your arm was eaten by a shark.
But know this.
This shit has a job in your life.
And even if right now you can’t see how or why or when life will get better — and you feel bleak, angry and want to hit someone with a cast-iron frying pan?
Use this mantra:
Shit has a job
Because strangely, there is hope in shit, too.