This is Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle.  A new week has possibilities beyond anything that you could imagine.  But it is Tuesday, so I hope you got that mapped out yesterday.  If you didn’t, you are a day late and a dollar short. And a dollar can buy a cookie.  And I would like a cookie.  Peanut butter please.  Seriously, though.  You still have time.  But what are you looking to find this week?  What are you looking to accomplish this week? What are you looking forward to this week?  Don’t worry, this isn’t twenty questions.  Only three questions.  I don’t have time for that.

On Monday, we decided to go the dog park.  Actually, Digby did.  He hasn’t been feeling all that well with the heat lately, and it seems like no matter how early we start, we get too hot in this Florida place.  So Girl Person decided to take us to the dog park where there was lots of shade, and lots of dirt.  All great combinations for a great morning.  A great, great morning.  Yet, Girl Person seemed to be a little disappointed.  Since I know everything she is thinking before she thinks it, I knew she was concerned that there were not many other dogs there.  I knew she was concerned that is wasn’t such an exciting morning, but as with all persons I have known, I see that they are missing the point half the time, and mostly all of the time.

As I laid in my dirt hole which I claim everytime at the dog park, I listened to other dog people talking to their dogs.  I watched other dogs playing.  I watched Digby go from tree to tree and then scratch his back on his favorite dog park bush.  This may not have been exciting to the persons, but it was perfection to me.

Persons seem to think that life is made up of happiness that comes from gigantic moments.  They don’t celebrate life until a day on a calendar says to do so.  They don’t enjoy a meal unless it comes from a fancy place with a big bill.  They don’t see the things that make up their every days, made up of a lot of little things that combine together to make the happiness.  They look for reasons to be happy or enjoy stuff that they think they should.  Looking for happy and the love of life in all the wrong places.  Not at where they are.  Even the dog park.

When you take a moment to discard the reasons that you think would make you happy, and channel your inner solitude, you start to realize simple pleasures that would have otherwise been lost.  Hurrying around only makes you more numb.  Hurrying around looking for stuff causes you to pass by all the little stuff which actually, is better.

“When from our better selves we have too long
Been parted by the hurrying world, and droop,
Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired,
How gracious, how benign, is Solitude”

― William Wordsworth

Have you ever ordered a pizza and made it a large, or an extra large?  Maybe you only got one topping on it.  It was ok.  You had a big pizza.  But then, maybe you spend the same amount of money on a medium pizza, but you get all the toppings you want.  It is smaller, but filled with a lot of great things.  And isn’t that what you should be ordering? Digby says that he likes sausage.  Or horse manure if they have that.

Digby and I have learned a few things in the past few years.  One of those?  Dogs are definitely happier than people.  If we waited to be happy until the persons were as happy as us, we would never enjoy anything as much.  Don’t be like that to others.  If they enjoy something small, don’t make them feel bad for not aspiring to more in your eyes.  Be positive, find joy, even at a dirty dog park, and know this…

Any way you can fill your life with happy, even if isn’t filled with all of the big things that you expect, that is the secret of life.  Find your happy.  Anyway you can.  And when you are happy, everyone around you is happy.  It’s as contagious as the diseases Digby has picked up just this morning.

As we got home, all dirty from the dog park, we got a bath, we had our breakfast, and it was time for a nap.  Oh, just like last week.  But as the persons watched us sleep, they remarked how wonderful of a morning it had been.  I suppose my joyful attitude wore off on them.  No, I wasn’t running around all smiling.  Digby wasn’t jumping on their laps with happy either.  It was in that peaceful moment of bliss, that the persons realized that little moment, combined with all the other moments of the day had made up a memory.

A good morning.  A good day.  And thus begins our week.  What begins yours? Start it in the right place.

As we live our happy this week, we look forward to next week too when we will be telling you some news!  Special, guest blogs all next week! Don’t miss them starting Monday.

-Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle

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