This is Deputy Digby Pancake. Have you ever had someone follow you around all of the time and watch everything you do? Like, they love you so much that everything you do is cute? Everything you do is amazing? Everything you do is worth taking a picture of? Well, welcome to my life.
Yes, yes, I should be used to it by now. When Girl Person says “picture” we know to stop wherever we are and look at the camera. No, our pictures aren’t what some persons would call professional…or special. But Girl Person says they are real. And real things are hard to come by nowadays.
Some days we feel like smiling. Some days, we don’t. Some days the lighting is good. Some days it’s not. But that is how life is when you live in the moment. You don’t fake it. Dogs don’t know how to fake it anyway.
Yesterday, it was raining and raining some more. It got cold here again in this Florida place just when we put away all our winter clothes. But after the rain stopped for a little while, Girl Person said it would do us good to take a ride and take a hike. And we agreed. After she lured us out the door with a turkey meatball.
It had been about six months since we had been to Fort Caroline here in Jacksonville, Florida. It’s a good place for us to go. There is stuff to learn about, history to ponder over and that’s for the persons. For Brickle and I, there are a few trails and we can even go in the fort. Places where they let us where the persons go are our favorite of all because we get to feel special. And that’s always a good feeling.
Girl Person told us while we were at the fort that we needed to snap a few pictures so our people could see where we went. But the problem was, her hands were cold. And so every time she wanted to take a picture, she had to take off her gloves. And they aren’t just regular gloves. No, they are gardening gloves. Because when you live in the Florida place, you don’t think you will ever need gloves. And that’s all you have.
And it was cold. Very cold. And she didn’t want to take off her gloves. So she wondered if those pictures were really important. And I knew that they weren’t. Because she was having more fun not taking a picture. And we ran up and down the hills, gazed over at the river, and then we climbed to the top where we could get a really good view. And that’s when we heard someone say, “That would make a really good picture.”
Girl Person laughed and told her it sure would. And yet, she didn’t rush to get out her camera. No, she just let us be. She let us look around. She let us be ourselves and not have to pose. No one likes to be “on” all of the time. And really, when are we most beautiful? When we pretend to be happy, or when we are really happy? When we pretend to be beautiful, or when we are beautiful? Because beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself.
Some may take a little longer to find their beauty. It is much easier to take that picture and smile. But how wonderful is it when we catch ourself smiling in the mirror with no one watching? Now, that would make a really good picture. Can you work on that today? Take a walk, take a hike, go to your happy place. You know where it is. You know what makes for a good picture. Now, take it.
-Deputy Digby Pancake
