This is Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle.  Have you ever wondered about something?  Like, how did I get so handsome?  Or how can a dog look as good as I do?  Or will there ever be a mirror strong enough to handle my reflection?  I myself have wondered those things, but I also wonder about other things as well.  Like Spanish Moss hanging in the trees in this Florida place.

There is so much moss here that it is hard to keep ignoring it. We have looked up in the trees many times, and have seen this fancy, schmancy tree decoration.  But as Girl Person has told me many times, there are things that we see every day that we don’t appreciate.  And this is the case with Spanish Moss.  Which in fact is not moss.  But it is something called a bromeliad.  Like a pineapple, with flowering parts.  And this blew my mind.  Why was I not privy to this information?  It was a lightbulb moment with moss instead.

Something else I learned? Spanish Moss is not from Spain.  It also doesn’t hurt the trees generally that it grows on. It just hangs around, being a mossy moss, all moss like.

And I had to keep thinking about this, and I wondered.  Were the trees that it was hanging on more beautiful?  I thought that they were.  It was like the taller the trees, the more moss. With the older trees came a sense of distinction. You know, like me.

They held a sense of pride, as the moss blew in the wind.  But I knew that in each tree, the moss held more than snakes and bats and bugs.  Yes, they held part of that tree’s thoughts and feelings and and history.

And I wondered.  What was growing on me?  Was I letting anything grow on me? Besides getting more handsome, that is.  Girl Person says that a rolling stone gathers no moss.  Because it is moving all of the time.  And I thought about that too.  It is dangerous when I get to thinking.  But you see, the longer that we have been sitting still, it seems the more we notice.  It seems the more we appreciate things.  We are letting things grow on us and we are letting things nourish us.  Like the Spanish Moss does to the trees.  It is good to travel and it is good to move along.  But sometimes, you can go too fast.  Sometimes, you need to have a little moss on you.  Maybe you have some on you too if you have been growing a long time like the trees.  If so, what is growing on you in that moss?  What thoughts and feelings do you have hanging around?

In this Florida place, there are many storms.

Sometimes, the storms are so strong that even I want to hide…to protect my handsome of course.  But sometimes, the storms here blow that moss right out of the trees…moss that has been there for so long.  And that’s ok too.  Because in its place comes new moss and a chance to hang on to new memories.  So if you have been around a long time, maybe even longer than me, try some new moss on for size if the storms of life get you down.  We can do it together I think.

The Adventure Of A Lifetime may be over.  But more adventures are still to come.  We just have to build a little moss on our branches before we venture out again.

-Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle

You know you have always wanted to be a barktender!  Watch Girl Person’s live, Facebook video from Saturday on how to make a KeiFURtini for dogs and get the full recipe here.