January 2020 – Page 2 – 2 Traveling Dogs

This is Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle. How fast is life going by you this week? What did you accomplish so far? Who told you that you had to do that? Was it worth it?

I asked myself these questions when we finally got here to this Cedar Key, Florida place.

When we first arrived, we were almost carried away…not with excitement. But by bugs. We will leave that story for tomorrow. When I get over the trauma.

Yesterday was a rainy day.

So we decided to stay and figure out if we should brave the bugs for the rest of the week or move on. And when Girl Person has to think about something, she hikes. So that is what we did.

As we were walking, we came upon a big hill. But it wasn’t just any hill, Girl Person said. It was a mound of shells.

And it had been there for longer than I can even imagine.

It was called a shell mound. According to history, this mound took 1000 years to build it. It was 15 foot high and they carried approximately 1.2 billion oyster shells, basket by basket to shape this mound. Shell Mound was a village as well as a place where the people remembered others who had passed away. I read the sign that said it was abandoned in A.D. 650. Way before I was born.

It was hard for me to imagine people from that long ago and what it might have been like here. Even though they aren’t here anymore, we can learn from them. Many areas on the coast of this Florida place had communities of people. Storms and other situations caused them to abandon their villages. But they were resilient and rebuilt and reorganized other places. But how many other places and people do I not know about? What have I walked past before? If not for the signs and the information here, we would not have known. And that would have been terrible in my opinion. Because it would have been disrespectful to just walk by.

But how many things or persons do we walk by?

Life for persons has become so busy. The oyster shells beneath our feet told a story on this trail. What tells a story beneath your feet? Do you even know? Who was there before you? What can you learn about the place you are at…right now?

Yes, life can get out of control. Persons put things in their day that have to be repeated the next. And the next day after that. How much time is wasted rushing around to do all these things! If you don’t stop…even for a little while, will you even leave a reminder to others what you stood for? If you don’t even take a moment to appreciate where you are standing, you won’t.

Take it from us. Putting unnecessary things in your day is well…unnecessary. Take one of those things out of your day today and learn about where you are standing. And then tell someone else. And then figure out how you can make your place on this earth something to be remembered.Don’t let life pass you by in a rush.