When you have to poop on the plane

When you have to Poop on the Plane

This guy, we’ll call him Larry, gets on board with his doggy who we will call Percy cuz I didn’t catch his name either but he looked like a proper little pug dog. Larry is supposed to keep Percy in a kennel because he’s a pet on board and NOT a service animal or “medically necessary” animal. He pulls him out of the carrier and assures me, “My dog is a veteran flier. He’s flown overseas and I've never had a problem. He always does great. Everyone says so and they usually just let me keep him in my lap.”
I give Percy a little scratch but let Larry know that Percy may be an angel dog but he’s required to remain in his carrier for our 2 hour flight today. 

So when I see Larry barreling down the aisle towards me carrying Percy, I am perplexed. Dude, we’ve had this conversation. But then I noticed there is a…errr…substance running down from Percy onto Larry’s pants. Aw, man.
INCOMING! 
I’m ready for them. I push the lav door open. 
Larry apparently thought Percy would finish his bizness on the toilet? In “hind”sight this was highly unlikely. Larry hovered Percy over the right spot for a bit but Percy said No Go, Larry. Larry tried to hand Percy to me. NOPE! This is your deal. So he put Percy down and jerked on the paper towels letting them flutter around the lav and onto the floor. He wet some trying to wipe the front of himself where it looked like he had poo-ed himself. Percy immediately let it all out on his preferred pottying spot - the carpet in front of the lav. The smell was PUNGENT. Toxic fume event on board! I need a settlement from the airline ;)

Percy, though a veteran flier, was not having a good day on the plane.

I was so tempted to try to blame this on Larry. But it was Percy who did the deed. But Larry brought him on board…But I am actually the mean old flight attendant who made Percy get in his little kennel when other flight attendants let him ride in the lap. That probably stressed him. Whose fault was it?? 

Like Percy, other people uh hum LARRY, sometimes put us in situations we should NOT be in.

A father leaves his little boy. Little boy grows up but has a handicapped heart. Who was going to teach him how to be a man? A father? A husband?
Or maybe Dad stays but unleashes all his anger and frustration out on his children because they can’t stand up to him. 
Our mom has to give us up for adoption because she can’t care for us properly.
A needy mom or wife dominates and controls every single area of her household and gobbles up anything good for herself. She’s hungry for love and attention but no one wants to give it. She feels so rejected. She’s gotta control so she feels like her sky isn’t always falling all day every day. 
A husband has a wise wife with a beautiful heart who is kind to him but he’s drawn away by the fake pearls and skin deep beauty of another. 
Someone so needy for attention or love, seeks to hook up with our hearts not for what they can share but to drain us dry for their own personal reasons. 
Self hatred. It breeds addiction and a hunger in the soul. When we feel far away from God, we try to feed that hunger with sex, money, control, attention. 
We choose to find attention in a way that isn’t the highest and best. 
We keep finding ourselves in the same situation over and over again. Creating our own drama repeating lies from our past that we’ve never properly worked through.
It’s so easy to blame another person. I am this way because of THEM and let that bitter root grow and poison our hearts. 
Poor Percy, we think. It was Larry’s fault! Larry was the dummy. He was the decision maker. 

BUT Larry might know that Percy does terrible while he is away…won’t eat and is sad. Larry just wants to care for the dog and there is no ideal situation. Or maybe he’s just cheap and doesn’t want to pay for it…

We want to judge the intents of someone else’s heart when they make a mess but we all have our reasons for doing what we do and some of them are very pure. We are doing the best we can with the hand in life that we have been dealt. Most aren’t malicious save the narcissist. Our brokenness inside our heart that motivates our actions is not meant to hurt anyone. Much of the time believing the best understands it’s ignorance. One thing we can count on in this world is that all will be imperfect at times and let others down. We will cause harm whether knowingly or unknowingly. Blaming is CRAZY MAKING. Blame them. Blame ourselves. Blaming God cuz isn’t he ultimately in charge. Blame the airline. Blame the passenger. Blame the government. Blame the people who kneel or don't kneel or don't agree with you. People who struggle with perfection and insecurity (like me) look for someone to blame. Don’t go down that road. It’s a dead end. We aren’t warring with flesh and blood. That’s really how we can walk through this life. Not pointing fingers, demanding perfection or finding fault. We can bring messy situations to let the light with a heart to help ourselves and others grow. We can love. #InAPerfectWorld #EasyToSayOnPaper#AndToSayToSomeoneElse #ThenItHappensToYou

But Percy was the victim here. He did nothing wrong. This situation was forced upon him. Believe me. I saw his big pug eyes. He would rather have been ANYWHERE ELSE than on that plane pooping on his owners pants. Sometimes, we find ourselves walking down a road that we didn’t turn left on. The cancer diagnosis. The miscarriage. The job layoff. The guy who claimed he loved us so we gave ourselves to him to find out that we are the star of our very own video that we never knew about but it was passed around at school. 
The abortion when we knew better. 
The eating disorder that's out of control because of the anxiety we can't stop.
The anger that boils over on to those around us like acid killing everything good in our relationships. 
The internet teaser. At first it was an accident but what about after that? The next time, we clicked and we were hooked.
The self centered decisions that hurt those we love most. We can’t get ME ME ME off the decision making throne. 

Back to our bathroom fail on the plane, the deed had been done. There was no use crying over spilled ______, Larry was practically in tears. He was on his hands and knees and had the dirty paper towels from the lav floor in his hand and was attempting to clean up Percy’s mess. Larry was smearing it in a circle and making a bigger mess. He was robotically repeating the same phrases over and over, “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. ’Percy’ never does this. He’s normally such a good dog. I can’t believe it.” 

And you know what I did? Because I could tell Larry was “trying” to do his part and acknowledged the mess. 
I said, “Leave it, Larry. I’ll finish this. Take care of Percy and then get him back in the kennel.”
I said this basically because my jumpseat was right there…and out of respect for the other passengers that needed to walk down the aisle and use the facilities AND the fact that Larry was actually making a bigger mess with his efforts. 

SoI got the haz mat kit out. Snapped on some gloves and a gown and mask. We have some of that carpet powder like your mom used to use and it somewhat soaks up stuff like this. Another fight attendant raked it up with a handy dandy scooper they include and then we got rid of it. I covered it up with some news paper until it could get a deep clean ;)

So whether our mess in life is as a result of our own decisions, someone else’s or a casualty of life’s lows, we are sometimes put in situations less than ideal but we have help. We are not alone in those less than ideal situations. We are not alone in our pain. We have a person who wants to be our best friend. Wants to help us walk out of the maze we find ourselves lost in. His presence carries joy in spite of our suffering. Peace instead of our fear and chaos. Power instead of victimhood. Unity instead of drama. Love instead of fear or blame gaming it.

Got some poop in your life? It's time to come clean. He will cover us. He took all of our messes to the cross with Him when He died. There’s no mess to big that He can’t love you through it. Let Him in. Ask Him for help.