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The other day, I was walking home when I saw a woman strolling her dog past our place. She stopped while her dog did its business on the public side of the sidewalk.
All good so far.
She pulled out a bag, bent down, and picked it up.
But then—she walked over to our foot-high hedge… and threw the poop into our property.
And get this: She kept the bag.
No joke.
She took the time to clean up after her dog, then dumped the mess on us and kept the poop-smeared wrapper.
For a second, I just stood there. Frozen.
My brain genuinely couldn’t compute.
Why would someone go out of their way to do something so… illogical?
So careless?
So infuriating?
And that’s when it hit me:
That moment was a perfect metaphor for life.
The world will throw $hit at you — and it won’t always make sense.
People will do things that feel unfair, unprovoked, and completely irrational.
They’ll offload their emotional, psychological or situational mess onto you and walk away like it’s not their problem.
And you’ll be left standing there, trying to figure out:
- “Why would they do that?”
- “What did I do to deserve this?”
- “What’s wrong with me?”
The truth is, most of the time, it has nothing to do with you.
People project their own mess.
Their own stress.
Their own unprocessed stuff.
And when they don’t know how to deal with it, they’ll throw it onto someone else — anyone else — just to feel lighter themselves.
It’s tempting to chase after them. To demand an explanation. To fix the situation.
But often, all that does is drain your energy for something that was never yours to carry in the first place.
Sometimes, the most self-respecting thing you can do is not react.
Not internalize it.
Not try to make sense of nonsense.
- You don’t need to rationalize the irrational.
- You don’t need to hold onto anger just because someone handed it to you.
- And you don’t need to spend your energy cleaning up messes that were never yours.
This isn’t about letting people off the hook. It’s about choosing where your peace is worth more than your pride.
In those moments, here’s something to consider:
Not every action deserves a reaction. And not every pile of crap is your responsibility to clean up.
- Protect your energy.
- Choose your battles.
- And for the love of your own sanity and a shirtless Chris Hemsworth — let some things go.
Because the world will always have dog-walkers like her.
You don’t have to carry what isn’t yours.
Until next time,
Be bold,
be brave and always,
stay fabulous.
DrK xoxo
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