Skunks Must Stay Out on the Porch!
| By Jackie Mulrooney, President J P Systems, Inc. On my farm in Virginia, we have some rules. My dog can come inside the house. Foster dogs can come inside. But skunks may not come in the house. We do not have enough tomato juice for that. Skunks must stay outside on the porch. It is better to keep the house clean to begin with than to have to clean it up when you finally convince the skunks to leave. Joy does not follow skunks around. Gratitude does not follow skunks around. Peace is not ushered in by skunks. What are you entertaining in your home? Would you let a skunk in the house and give it a bowl of food next to your dog? Are there any skunks trying to get in your house? “Well, no!”, you say. “I live in the city. There are no skunks lined up trying to get in my front door.” Don’t be so sure. When you wake up in the morning, there may be skunks of fear trying to get in. Or maybe you have a worry skunk outside. The quality of your attitude depends on keeping these things out. You have a choice about what gets in the house of your mind, meaning your thoughts. Some people call it stinking thinking when skunks reign in your mind. People and circumstances can put you in a bad place, but you choose how you react to them. Don’t adopt someone else’s baby skunks. Don’t feed a baby skunk either. If you are feeling heavy, “Joy” it off you. Joy is not a feeling, is it is a choice. Joy is not like happiness as it does not depend on the circumstances of your life. It is like a crowbar. It can lift things and pry things apart. The same goes for gratitude. It can get the heaviness off of you. How? Sit down and make a gratitude list. Write down 10 things you have to be grateful for today. They don’t have to be big things. Write them down as this forces you to change your mindset into one that looks for good things in your life. It opens the door to a change of attitude. When your mind is renewed, the quality of your thoughts change, and the skunks of worry, fear and anger will leave. If you were confused, you will know what to do next. Choose a positive mental and emotional flow right when you get up in the morning, before the skunks start knocking. Don’t turn on the news first thing or last thing. The news is a parade of the largest, smelliest, scariest skunks the media can find. I do not find them interesting or necessary. You don’t need that in your house in any form. You do need the local weather report for planning. But you do not need to hear a biography of someone else’s skunks that are half way around the world. Keep the skunks out on the porch, please. |