All Thru The Night

This is Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle. I have been in this Florida place again for quite a long time. Probably, I feel like we have been sitting here at this campground for about ten years now. Although the persons say that it hasn’t been that long. It’s been nice to relax and regroup and see where this journey of life leads us next. When we find out here in the next few weeks, we will let you know. You don’t rush a Sheriff, or you know what will happen. You. Are. Arrested. I am working on this…

Now. Back to business. Since I am pretty much a Florida dog, I know about the weather and our afternoon rain storms.

I know about the bugs. Except what in the actual world is this.

I also know that the scary lightening stuff will make your pants not so dry if you wear pants. It is a good thing that we don’t. And as Deputy Digby, Girl Person and I made our trek to the beach for our afternoon walk the other night, well, we forgot all we knew about this Florida place and the sky that we were looking at. Because we really, really, wanted to get to that beach.

Sometimes, you think to yourself…self. Do you really think that this is a good idea? Because it most probably is not. And yet, you get so caught up in routine and wanting to do what you wanna do that you can’t help yourself. And so, as we sat in the shelter for almost two hours, getting our imaginary pants scared off of us, Girl Person told us that this was another lesson learned in life. I just was too scared to listen at the time to yet another lesson. Also, I was tired. I wanted to get back to the RV. And yet, as we ran for our lives through the flooded campground, and finally got inside, I was sad. Sad that I didn’t get to see my beach. Sad that I didn’t get to stay out there as long as I wanted to. Sad that no one got to look at my beach body on a weekday. And I really couldn’t stop thinking about it. All thru the night. Nothing else mattered. Even Digby was depressed because I was depressed.

As I tried to sleep the night away with one eye open as usual, I thought about what Girl Person had said…that there was a lesson in here for us. I wanted to think about this for myself, without letting her know. All she had told me was a quote. She loves those quotes.

“It is only in sorrow bad weather masters us; in joy we face the storm and defy it.” – Amelia Barr

And because I had so much time not being at the beach and all, I realized it. If we had been truly happy that day when the storm came, it would not have made us so sad. If we had found our joy before the storm, we could have appreciated the storm itself. Why were we putting so much weight on one thing in our day, and ignoring all of the pretty cool things that were also there to be noticed. Like that crazy bug.

It has been kind of like the storm here for us in the Florida place. Looking for a house, getting a bit down and not traveling as much caused us to lose a little joy. But in actuality, it was our fault. We should have been channeling our inner Click Beetle and when we landed on our back, or in a storm, we got right back up! The whole thing clicked for me. The storm was a lesson. And Girl Person didn’t even need to explain it to me. This night wasn’t so bad after all.

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So the next time a storm in your life comes up, be determined to face it. But you have to work on yourself and your attitude first…before it arrives. And if you can’t wear pants when you are running thru the rain, so be it.

-Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle