This is Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle.  Give me a chance to relax, recharge and recoup, and let me tell you…even if you don’t let me, I will tell you…I can do anything.  I can be anything.  More than usual.  At the beach.

You see, the last week has been what I would call a gift.  No, not a gift of money, or even peanut butter cookies.  Not a new toy, or a steak dinner when I actually prefer fish.  But a gift of just being.  Of just. Being. Me.

It seems like it would be the easiest thing to do for persons to be themselves.  If you are yourself, you don’t have to work to be something else.  You don’t have to worry about offending someone else, because those that are around you want to be.  Because you are you.  And I suppose that is the reason why there are not many people around me because being myself entails growling.  Or arresting.  Or being more handsome than life itself.  But the few that are around me like to be arrested.  They like my spicy growl. And they like me.  And me being me is even greater at the beach. So if you don’t like it, you can sail on.

I sense the simplicity of what the world is supposed to be.  I sense the greatness of what everyone could be.  Without all of the everything else.

At the beach, there are no clocks.  The beach doesn’t watch a clock, but life changes with the tides, and the moods change with the currents.  Nothing at the beach is worried about tomorrow, because it has to be where it is at that moment.  And with the swaying of the sawgrass and the sound of the waves, you hear what you need to.  And so today.  I want you to take off your shoes.  Take a walk with me.

Where will we walk? I am going to take you to YOU.  You probably think that you left some parts of you along a walk that you took another day.  Maybe you left it there because you were taking care of someone else.  Maybe you left it there because someone stole something from you.  Maybe you left it there because you didn’t have the strength to carry it.  But at the beach, when you are walking with me, you are strong.  You are brave.  You will find what you left, even if it was years ago.  The tides may have swept it a little far out, but we can find it.

What I am trying to say is that we aren’t everything bad happening around us.  We aren’t what has happened to us in the past.  If you find your beach, there is no choice but to be who you are at that exact moment.  The sand, the shells, the water, the wind…they are all part of what is wonderful.  And they are part of you.  You are part of them.  We are all part of something wonderful.  Is life truly a beach?  It is.  But you have to go there.  Don’t wait.

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For me, my happy place is on the water with sand in-between my paws.  But if you are like Deputy Digby, your happy place may be a hike in the woods.  Wherever it may be in nature that let’s you find where you left those parts of yourself that you forgot about…it is time.  Time to go back and get it.

-Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle

Did you miss Girl Person LIVE on our Facebook page yesterday?  Learn how to make a dog and person friendly Melony Chicky Salad With Cashews!  Get the full recipe at www.yourdogsdiner.com