Shalom Talk

Sometimes when Hollywood was riding with Miss Tillie on the weekends, he would really be working. They would be hunting for cattle trying to bring them back into the larger herd. But for Hollywood and Miss Tillie, this was a time of pleasure.

They got to enjoy the most beautiful place on the face of the earth from their viewpoint. The trees were magnificent. The valleys were deep with streams running in the bottom. They were gloriously clear. Sometimes you could see the trout moving around in the streams. These little brook trout were so happy, playful, and so content. There were no natural predators in the valley; and there were very, very few fishermen in those days.

Sometimes Hollywood would hear God speak to him in the wind when he was high in the hills. He would dream about what it was like for the men of old in Scripture who heard God’s voice speak a message of hope and then repeat that message to people in the city.

Remembering a vision in Ezekiel, it felt like he could almost see God at sunrise or sunset. He wondered how many times he bumped into an angel out there when a lone rider came by. Occasionally he would bump into somebody he did not know. This person would have a message of good cheer or questions, or he just had a pleasant smile on his face and said hello as he passed by.

Today, Miss Tillie and Hollywood were enjoying the afternoon as they searched for strays. When they found them, they brought them back to safety 1 by 1. After the stray calf could get down off the horse, the stray calf would start letting out little whelps to help mom find the calf. The mother would hear their calf calling out as they got closer to the herd and you could see the mother moving through the herd so that calf could find her. Then they would engage in a lot of nuzzling and then off they go.

Sometimes the mom would turn back and look at Hollywood, but not too often. She knew that was what Hollywood did for her. The cattle kind of just expected it to happen. At least that is how it felt to Hollywood. But they were grateful.

One time when they were out hunting for strays, they came across a trapped calf. The stray calf got stuck between two trees and it just looked a little silly. He could not go forward and he could not go backwards. After a bit of analysis, we realized all he needed to do was breathe in, compress his lungs, and then his rib cage would let go of those trees.

We took a close look and made sure he was ok to ride back to the herd. And then we gently eased him out from the two trees. He was injured pretty badly, so we cleaned up his wounds. We even put some gentle bandages on him and then threw him up on the horse with Miss Tillie. We rode very slow, so the calf did not feel too much pain. They worked their way back home and then put the calf back into the mom’s protection.

And the two of them kind of looked at each other and the mom licked the calf side. All was well. Few days later we checked in on that calf, healing was moving forward nicely, Hollywood suspected the calf hardly remembered the incident. Miss Tillie talked with me about my feelings when we are out in the in the High Plains. From that conversation, she took notes and created a short poem. This is what she wrote —

The open range is calling me across the miles, as I sit before the open sky, I guess I’ll dream a while.

I sit on a porch all day, with distant canyons steep, I think about my Jesus, His grace, a gift to keep.

Out in the open I can hear, where the wind cry’s, God sings on that distant ridge, he is calling out to me.

A trail that leads to somewhere, like a floating log, a song on a river, its calling me to God.

The first time Hollywood heard that bit of prose that Miss Tillie put together, he teared up a little bit because Hollywood did not realize how he sounded until she captured his bits and pieces together in a poem.

The next morning, we were out hunting for strays again and we came across three of them that had backed themselves into a corner of a draw and for some reason or another they got lost in this little bitty bit of heaven. They could not find their way out. We could see them; they had been moving around. There was water there, and there were things to eat, so maybe they just were not that anxious to leave. But there they were, kind of playing with each other, ignoring us. We rode in. We looked around to make sure no predators were in the area. When we knew they were clear, then we gathered them up, and got them heading in the right direction.

They were actually a little resistive, Miss Tillie thought they liked the little place they had found. But we needed to get them back to the herd, so we started moving them along. Now Miss Tillie could not help but notice Hollywood looking to the left and to the right. It was an unbelievably beautiful draw, the pine trees, and the craggy rock. It was stunning. Then we came across a stream and that is where they were getting their water. It was crystal clear and was not very wide, but it was enough – a spring fed water source.

We took a detour and rode back up the stream a little bit, following the stream until we came to the place where it came out of the earth. It was just magnificent, just a bubbling, gurgling little pool of water gradually going out. And it became a beautiful source of water.

Eventually we found our way back to the herd. The day was coming to close; the sunset was glorious. Hollywood started thinking about Miss Tillie’s poem. He knew that God had provided a beautiful day to celebrate life.  He enjoyed the evening breeze and the rocker on his porch.  All was well on the ranch…

Ezekiel 1:25-28 — Then there came a voice from above the vault [heavens] over their heads as they stood with lowered wings. Above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking (NIV).

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.