This is Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle. Have you ever gazed upon something magical, something wonderful, something worth gasping about, and you think of who you want to tell about it? Perhaps I can illustrate this way. You know, it’s the feeling every time you see me and you have to tell the world. You have to. It’s natural to feel a bit of puppy love.
That was how I felt this weekend as Girl Person and I were walking on the beach. You may wonder where Deputy Digby was. With all of our thunderstorms and rain and lightening, he has become a bit obstinate. If it is raining, or if rain is even thinking about raining, Digby ain’t goin nowhere. And so after Girl Person almost pulled her back out trying to carry him down our flooded, campground roadway, she gave up. She took Digby back to the Big Blue Treat Wagon RV and he was happy to wait it out. However, what Digby didn’t know was that the rain never came, and then me and Girl Person were alone on the beach a mile away. Feeling pretty empty without Digby with us. It just didn’t feel right at all. And that’s when I saw it. The castle in the sand.
Truth be told, and I always tell the truth, I was a bit down. Without Deputy Digby to make my life more difficult, it had become too easy for that hour. And normally, when we see a sandcastle, Girl Person has to pull Digby away from peeing on it. She has to block him from knocking it down. And well. There the castle was, just being a castle, no one was around, and the castle wasn’t in any danger. This wasn’t so much fun. Boring. I felt like we were just wandering around for no reason.
I knew that I should try and remember to tell Deputy Digby about the castle in case the next day he wanted to do his business plan on it. I took a picture in my mind of our coordinates, and I sat down next to it so that Girl Person could take my picture. She started laughing because she thought that I really, really, liked this castle. Well, I did. I didn’t even care that people were walking by gazing at the feast for the eyes that was me by a well built castle. Oh, I looked like an angel.
As I sat there though, and I admired this castle that was all mine, and not even Digby’s…I wondered. Was a castle really worth having if you were the only one there? Was a castle even as majestic or big or pretty if only one person saw it? Wouldn’t its beauty be worth more the more people that visited it? I wondered.
As I gazed upon the castle, and wished for the days gone past when Digby would have just knocked it down, it occurred to me. Even I can’t be King of the castle with no one else there.
As I did my deep thinking as usual, I turned my back to the castle. With one, big wave, the castle was washed away. And I suppose that I knew it would happen. There is nothing material in our life that can’t be taken away in an instance…including the ones that we love. It didn’t matter to me at that point that the castle had been washed away. It only mattered to me that in a few minutes time, I could walk back to our RV and see my Deputy again. I was feeling pretty good that I had that chance. However, when you leave Digby all alone in an RV for an hour, your castle sure doesn’t smell like a castle. And yet, that was ok. I might not be a King of a castle, but King of an RV is a pretty good job too.
We all build on what is important to us. Be careful that your worth isn’t based on something that can be lost or washed away. You can spend all of your time building something that although big, will leave no room for anything else in your life. Fill your castle with the ones you love. Even if your castle is a house on wheels.
-Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle
