This is Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle. Being a little under the weather gives you time to reflect. Or it gives me time to work on my handsome. But it’s not that it needed working on. However, you see, we all have to recharge. Because even in the middle of a storm, like we have had every day this week, it is possible to see a rainbow in our mind, even if it is not there yet.
When you go, go, go like I do, sometimes, you don’t see what is right in front of you. Sometimes, you don’t see what is in front of you because you are too busy looking in the mirror.
But when you are forced to stop, like I was this week, I started to really notice the little things.
But most of all, I started to smell the little things. And I wondered. Why hadn’t I thought of this before? If I wanted to go on a little vacation from being sick, or being stressed from the rain, I could smell my way there. I went there. Let me take you there.
First, I stopped and smelled the air. I started to come to the realization that I could smell a campfire from this day on, and for the rest of my life, every time I wanted to go camping, I could have a little campfire in my mind. Wherever we were.
I then thought of my favorite, most happy place on this earth. The beach. And I realized. Even if I was somewhere where I could not hear the waves, I could always play back these memories in my mind. I was saving them for later.
There are some things that I definitely don’t want to smell. Yes, Deputy Digby for one. I also don’t want to smell burnt peanut butter cookies. But for the many things out there wonderful in our day, I believe that everything really does have a smell so that we can remember it. For example, the smell after a rain of the dirt and wet grass. The smell of an ocean breeze, a rose bush, or the scent of a home cooked meal.
There are times in my day where I smell something, and I immediately get transported in my mind back to when I was a puppy. Like the smell of a chicken coop, and I remember Izzy and Rooster Man and Pecky Pecky and Sonoma when they were babies. I miss them.
When I smell peanuts, I think of Granny Person and sitting in her living room with a can full. And if not for all of these smells, how could I remember so vividly the wonderful, normal things in my life? Dogs can smell even more than persons can. So imagine all of the fabulous things we remember.
After a week like we had, with all of the rain and the mud and the stress of the storms which still aren’t over, it would have been easy to get very down. But allowing myself to go on vacation in my mind from all of the things that were not so pleasant made a trip possible that I normally wouldn’t have had time for.
So when you are needing a break, let me take you there. Let me take you on a vacation in your mind. We don’t need to buy any tickets, or spend any money. Because the time you spent in the past has made it possible now. Let’s go somewhere special, whether that is the house you grew up in, a vacation to the mountains that you took with your family once, or maybe a trip to to a bakery where you got a delicious cookie. I’ll share it with you. Was it peanut butter?
-Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle
