DawgDung and The Replacement Principle

Well like granny says, "If you git cold at night you just throw another dawg on the bed!"

Overwhelmed is putting it lightly. This has been a hard month for me. Man oh man alive. Where the heck fire did February go? It's March? Really?? Hmmm... Well I had a very difficult class in school that I just finished. I wanted to jump off a bridge but I ate chocolate cake instead.
I have a 4.0 in graduate school right now, which makes me feel very smart. My dad always says I'm smart. Now I'm proving him right.
My daughter and husband and son made a chicken tractor on Saturday. From a BOX SPRING. Yes sirree. That's what happens when you live in Maury County, OUTSIDE Williamson and outside the city limits. We be countrifried.
My heart seems a bit neglected. I haven't written in weeks. My hair is funky, my dog needs a bath and I need to learn how to take better care of myself. Do any of you relate? Seems like every day I wake up thinking... I need an hour or two to just spend with me. Me and the God of the Universe need an hour or two. And then email calls me and the house is a mess and my cat needs petting and my bed isn't made and what's happening on Facebook and what about those old emails and then what about the curriculum I haven't finished and.... Well you know how it goes.. before you know it the hour is up and yet again, you are left in the wind.
The wind. Gone with the wind that hour you wanted for yourself. And the God that loves you.
Wonder why we do that?
Wonder how as women we seem to put ourselves dead last?
I would love to offer you all the solutions in the world and make you think I've got it all figured out, but friends, I'm here to tell you, I'm here on this planet struggling just like the rest of the human race.
What helps me is to reframe my thoughts and use the Replacement Principle. Ever heard of that? Well my good friend Sue Ellen taught my all about it. Let's have an object lesson.
SO! How am I feeling right now? Like a piece of dog dung if you want the honest truth. Now I can either spend the rest of my day feeling like dawgdung or I can use the Replacement Principle. Now. What is the opposite of DawgDung? Go to your Opposites Dictionary and you will find that the opposite of DawgDung is GoodDank. Now that doesn't make a lick of sense does it? Nope. So you have to dig on down into your own heart dictionary and find the answer for yourself.
Today I feel like DawgDung. But I am choosing to replace this with something positive so that I won't feel like DawgDung all day and then make my kids and husband and the postman and my pets feel the same DawgDung way.
So I choose to find a word I can live with. How about Content and at Peace. Let's look at this further.
Content means...happy enough with what one has or is; not desiring something more or different; satisfied.
Peace means....A state of quiet or tranquillity; freedom from disturbance or agitation; calm; repose .
So instead of meditating on dawg, I'm meditation on the fact that right now, in this moment, I am happy enough with what I have and am, I am not desiring something more or different. I am satisfied. I am meditating on the fact that I have the great privilege to enjoy a state of quiet, tranquility, a freedom from disturbance or agitation, a calm. A "peace" that passes all understanding, that can only be found by searching within, finding the gem, finding that God gave us the ability to live in His peace anytime we want it.
I once heard a friend talk about good boundaries. How good boundaries are like a fence with remote control panels. We have the remote control and have the ability to open and close as we wish. Isn't it interesting to know that God doesn't make us open our fences? He lets us open and close as we wish. We can open our fences and let him in today, and all the good things he made for us to enjoy- or we can keep our fences closed. I think I'll open a panel or two ;)
I'm feeling better already, how about you?
It is not our circumstances that create our discontent or contentment. It is us. -Vivian Greene
Happy the man, and happy he alone,
he who can call today his own; he who,
secure within, can say, tomorrow
do thy worst, for I have lived today.
-John Dryden
May your day be filled with peace and contentment today. And always remember, when your morning gives you DawgDung, you can always throw it over the fence.
Love and Blessings,
Stacy