An analogy

This is Sushi. She’s a pug and she’s quite the character.

Sushi isn’t spayed so she still goes into heat. This is new to me. I have no experience with an unspayed adult female doggie. Among some other things, not being spayed and going into heat means she drips fluid from her lady parts. She drips on the floors, on the couch, on your clothes, on the other dogs, and on and on, and it is a bit annoying. It also means lots of extra cleaning.

*Fun science fact: the protein in dog blood is different from human blood. Although human blood is one of the toughest things to get out of fabric, dog blood is not at all difficult to get out.

Even so, it’s really not fun at all to see and have to clean up that mess. Everywhere. All the time. While she’s in heat. I know some of you are thinking, just get her spayed. And yes, that would remove this issue. However, you can’t do that while she’s in heat. So you have to endure. Or do you?!

And that’s where doggie diapers come in. For a small fee and minor inconvenience (you have to remove it when she goes out to go potty and put it back on when she comes back inside), all the little drips are no longer a problem! Fortunately, Sushi just accepts having the diaper on. Not all dogs would leave it be. So that’s a blessing.

And, what’s more, you can get washable doggie diapers in different colors. So it’s really easy to clean the diapers, you’re not adding waste to incinerators or landfills, and you can choose ones that look like jeans or pink ones to match her collar. What fun!!!

In all seriousness though, have you ever found yourself annoyed and frustrated cleaning up little drips everywhere, knowing you can’t turn that faucet off?! Well , is there some way you could instead bandage that puppy up (pun intended) and give yourself some relief?! Think outside the box. Talk to other people about it. Perhaps there is a simple solution you’re not seeing right away. It’s worth spending some time to see.

Boundaries

Ways to practice self love: (from https://wildsimplejoy.com/affirmations-self-worth/)

  • Not “people pleasing”
  • Trusting your gut instincts
  • Setting aside time for rest and self-care
  • Allowing your creativity to shine
  • Using “No” as a complete sentence
  • Celebrating your successes
  • Rolling with your failures
  • Speaking to yourself as if you were a friend
  • Allowing yourself time to grieve
  • Not beating yourself up for making mistakes
  • Allowing yourself to feel pleasure
  • Forgive ourselves if we treat ourselves poorly

Just saying I’m going to work on improving my sense of self worth isn’t enough. I need concrete steps. Setting boundaries is a great way to start.

I like this list (even though the wording of the last bullet doesn’t fit with the way all the other bullets are worded). I’m going to try to set some boundaries based on these.

I also did a little searching for Bible verses related to setting boundaries. The following verse isn’t as much about setting boundaries as it’s about staying with them.

“Don’t be misled – you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant… so let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”

Galatians 6: 7 & 9