We had just parked the car and were walking towards the entrance to the mall. My daughter, age 7, is riding on my shoulders. A seagull, flying overhead, relieved himself depositing a large load of poop right on top of my head. My daughter, being a first-hand witness to this very disagreeable event, scrambled to get off of my shoulders as quickly as she possibly could, sliding away down my back rather than the usual lift over my head.

My wife and daughter moved hastily away from my side as if they feared I might be a seagull poop magnet. The look on my daughter’s face was nothing short of disgust. My wife, on the other hand, was laughing. I’m not really sure if she was laughing because of the incident or the look on my face, which probably reflected what I was feeling inside, a mix of surprise, revulsion, and profound disapproval.

Of course, we were walking into the primary entrance of the mall rather than one of the department stores with a convenient bathroom. No, I would have to walk through half of the mall to get to the bathroom to cleanup. And I had to walk alone! My family followed behind at a distance, far enough to ensure we wouldn’t be thought of as being together, yet close enough to see the great variety of looks I received from people along the way.

And yes, it was Saturday, the mall was crowded, and everyone appeared to be more interested in people-watching than shopping. I’m not sure, but it seemed that there must have been a hundred buss-loads of people in that hallway. A quick walk was not a possibility. So I meandered, thereby ensuring the greatest number of people had ample opportunity to witness my predicament.

Now I ask you, do you think they noticed how well I was dressed? From my perspective, they only noticed one thing, that large pile of seagull poop sitting on top of my head. I suppose that’s only fair. It was, of course, the central concern I had on my mind too!

Finally, I made it to the bathroom and washed the mess off my head. I was respectable once again. My daughter held my hand and my wife walked beside me.

Removing the crap on my head wasn’t so hard. But what if the crap was inside my head? How would I go about removing that? There are so many things that happen as we move through our day that we might label as crappy or the like. That’s not so bad, as long as we leave it on the outside.

But when we let some of that crap get inside our head, it gets much harder to remove. To be honest, I didn’t feel good walking around with bird poop on my head. It affected my mood, and colored a part of my day in a negative way. Yet, after it was washed away it became an incidental memory, a story to tell to friends and family, and little more.

There will be times when another person will drop some crap on you. They might inform you of your shortcomings, your failure, or your inability to impress or improve. When that happens, think of it as another bird dropping something undesired onto you. Leave it there, on the outside. You might not be able to rinse it off immediately. Others around you may notice and give you disapproving looks.

None of this is a problem as long as you leave the crap on the outside. Let it inside, start believing it, and it will affect you in unflattering ways. Your happiness and your feelings of worth will be affected. Life gets more complicated when your head is full of other people’s crap.

So don’t worry about it when someone gives you a bunch of S-H-I-T. It’s crap, their crap. It’s not yours, at least not until you let it in. When you get home, wash it off, let it go. It don’t mean anything until you give it a meaning.

You can learn from it without making it into something monumental. I learned from my seagull experience. What did I learn? Birds poop. And sometimes they might even drop some on me. But I’m not going to be afraid of that. It’s just a part of the journey. And I want to enjoy mine as much as I possibly can.

So get out there, enjoy your journey, and don’t get too upset if you get some crap on you.