Let Pigs Eat Slop
Just from the title of this post, you have probably figured out I’m a lil country girl…lol Well, I am and I’m proud of it. Because I was brought up in the country, I had the luxury of enjoying my childhood. I wasn’t forced to grow up. I was able to play outside well after dark. I could walk down the road without fear that some stranger would snatch me up. And I was even fortunate enough to have neighbors that would chastise me as if they were my parents if I got out of line. All of those things went along with being a kid in the country. Another thing I was able to experience as a child growing up in the country was farming and caring for livestock. Livestock that included pigs.
The majority of you reading this post will most likely know what pigs are. However, for those of you who were not brought up in the country and/or could not even imagine what that would have been like, let me define ‘slop’. Slop is waste food used to feed pigs or other animals; swill. It’s worst than the scraps on your table. It’s more like the scraps from your table, the neighbors table, and his neighbors table all put together. Slop may not sound appetizing to you, but pigs LOVE it. Now to the point of the post.
I’m sure you’ve heard/read the biblical saying, ‘don’t cast your pearls before swines’. In other words, don’t waste what you consider valuable (pearl) on something that will not appreciate it (swine/pig). You wouldn’t prepare a gourmet meal to feed to a pig would you? Nor would you purchase an evening gown from Christian Dior to dress a pig. Of course not. That would be silly and foolish. A pig would not know the difference between the gourmet meal and slop. And the Christian Dior gown would be plain uncomfortable to the pig. The pig would most likely prefer the slop and the mud. Know why? Because a pig eats slop and waddles in the mud. That’s just what it does. And there’s absolutely NOTHING wrong with that.
Oftentimes we want people to be different than they are. We would prefer they talk another way, walk another way, think another way, even experience THEIR life another way. Any other way than they currently do. Because they are ‘different’, we want to ‘fix’ them. The problem with that is they are not broken; therefore, they don’t need fixing. I have found that people want to be accepted for who they are. They desire love….unconditionally. They want to be heard, seen and validated for who they are…a spiritual being having a human experience. You only cause yourself pain and distress when you want a person to be different than they are. You create separation when you do not accept a person as they are. Nourish everyone you meet with love and kindness. Then step back and watch them grow. Allow them their pleasures. And should you come across a pig in your travels…Let Pigs Eat Slop.
In love,
J-licious
© Copyright 2010/03/08 Jacque Keil All Rights Reserved
Beautiful!!
This is a subject I’ve been dealing with for the last few years. I had to first come to the conclusion, myself, that I was not broken – therefore did not need fixing. After experiencing life on the short end of the guilt and condemnation stick, I accepted and embraced myself.
After living in that realization for a while, I had the ‘light bulb’ moment that other’s were entitled to that same freedom I’d found so comforting. Since then, I make concious efforts to allow other pigs their choice of slop. Lord knows I’m loving mine.
Thanks for sharing such an awesome analogy!!
This post is profound on many different levels. Is it possible to be broken? I don’t think so but it is possible for those who see you not to SEE YOU. This is ok because its not their job to see you, its their job to see themselves.
I don’t have to know why pigs eat slop but it is good to know that they do eat slop and love it so I can make sure they have plenty of it. Most of the time it is not others that we are wanting to change, it is ourselves that we wish would change but we project it on to others so we don’t have to deal with it.
We are perfect just the way we are until the day we’re not. If the pigs didn’t eat the slop then who would? If you weren’t being authentically you then who would fill your spot?
You’ve proven that you can learn a lot from a country girl.
R