Do you know about the Dung Beetle? The dung beetle is an insect whose whole life is about poop! Yup, he uses his incredible sense of smell to seek out poop, collect poop, roll poop into poop balls and even pushes these poop balls, which can be bigger than him, up hills and down valleys.
Somedays, I feel like a dung beetle. Except for the part of looking for poop, but certainly the collecting of other people’s poop, trying to control and manage the poop and feeling like I am pushing the very heavy poop up a very steep hill. These are my Dung Beetle days, and the poop is not only work poop, it can be home poop, poor service poop, car poop… any possible kind of poop or combination of poop, but poop none the less. These Dung Beetle days are the days I find most exhausting and the days that just suck the joy and energy out of me. I’m not talking about mental health issues (which are serious and need to be managed with the necessary level of seriousness), just that feeling that it is all a little bit too hard today.
Dung Beetle Days – Liesl, 2019
So the reason I call them Dung Beetle Days is to remind me that in the midst of whatever poop that I’m in, there is always something positive and something humorous going on too. Because there is so much we can learn from these poop dependent beings and remember in our poop-filled moments:-
Dung Beetles can push balls of poop that are 100 times heavier than them!
Even if things are heavy right now, you have the strength you need to manage.
Dung Beetles live (and thrive) in every continent except Antarctica!
You’re more resilient than you think.
There are around 8,000 known species of Dung Beetles in the world.
You are not alone.
Dung Beetles play a remarkable role in agriculture and tropical forests – by burying and consuming dung, they improve nutrient recycling and soil structure.
You are making a difference, what you are doing has tangible value.
Dung beetles can eat more than their own weight in 24 hours.
There is always chocolate….
