Month: December 2024

Early in the morning when the sun peaks above the stars and begins the long trek up to the top of the sky in all its splendor is the best time of day. The clouds’ part company and allow their friend the Sun to gently rise, warming the land, and causing the flowers to bloom. The flowers turn their blooms towards the sun and follow its rays all day long.

Miss Tillie is smiling as Hollywood daydreams about things in the past when he lived on a cattle ranch called the Flying Too. He made up many songs as a young man and he recalled one this morning.

Back home again on the Flying Too,

From a young lad to a man, I grew.

Twenty long years I’ve been away,

I sometimes wonder why I strayed.

Pushing out across the high plains,

I know every foot of that prairie range.

My years turn back as I dreamed along,

and hum to myself this old song.

Hollywood could see the ridge from the old Flying Too homestead in his mind. On a good day you could see nearly 50 miles in most directions. Every day the cattle scattered and he loved to run out to the ends of the land, hunting for them, bringing them back home for their supper, and taking a good bath in the creek.

Every day he was on the ranch was peaceful but eventually things changed and he wondered what was over the next hill. He wondered what it was like to be on other ranches. He wondered if he could be a cowboy on any other ranch. He wondered. His song continued:

An Eagle fly’s low with life on its wing.

God sent butterflies out to sing.

The West wind blows with a curious sigh.

Fireflies dance on the bells they ring.

The tumbleweed stops and rolls on by.

Mercy comes down and heals the divide.

All is well in God’s country tonight.

All is well in God’s country tonight.

Hollywood was remembering his friends and family who had scattered to the four winds. From time to time a letter would come and let him know of their fate. He would send out letters to them and then he started creating dream catchers with an attached note for the trees on the range. He carefully wrapped the notes in a leather pouch and attached them to the dream catcher. As he wandered about the Wind River Range he secured the dream catchers to a tree.

Sometimes he would hear about his dreamcatcher messages when he drifted into town for supplies, but no one knew it was Hollywood that was writing the messages. He was becoming a bit of a curiosity in the community as people tried to learn who was writing the messages.  Miss Tillie knew, but she never told anyone the messages came from Hollywood.

One of his favorite messages was this…

It has been my observation that God loves all of us more than we will ever know. Even before we were born, he knew about us and loved us for what we would become. He even planned for our life and helped us to find our way through life. We are wise to honor God with the things we earn from the land, we should share with others when we have plenty and even when we do not. If you do this, God will keep filling your barns with crops overflowing, and your wells with cool water. Those who find God’s wisdom will be blessed; I suggest that you spend your life growing in wisdom. God’s wisdom is more valuable than gold, more precious than diamonds, there is nothing that compares with God’s wisdom. The way of wisdom will lead you to a long life, a pleasant life, a good life of service to God. You will find peace when you find God’s wisdom. Hang on to the good things, hang on to God’s wisdom.

Hollywood and his dreamcatchers were famous in his later days. Sometimes his messages appeared in the local newspaper. People would read and talk about them for hours. He kept writing for most of his life. Miss Tillie was always sure to make the little leather pouches and keep a fresh ink pen ready for Hollywood to support his creation of new messages. They worked hard, their barn was full, and they shared with many who needed help.

As the sun went down, Hollywood and Miss Tillie reflected on their life and on the Flying Too ranch. He could not imagine a life any different than the life he was living.

Proverbs 9:10 — The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

Please note: In 1956 a cowboy poet, Jim Jennings, published a short book about his experience working at ‘dude’ ranches in the west. My Great grandmother, Goldie Livingston, obtained a first edition copy of Jim’s self-published book in the fall of 1956. The poetry in this story is adapted from Jim’s book.