The new year is upon us, a time ripe with resolutions and visions of betterment and change. Everyone seems instantly ready to be out with the old and in with the new, but I disagree a little with that perspective and have been thinking a lot this January about the role the past plays in change, in actually celebrating the old and using some of the ways of yesterday to make a better today.
While watching my daughter ride this last week, it occurred to me how much progress she has made over the course of the last year. These changes may have started with intentions but they didn’t occur overnight or just because she woke up Jan. 1 and resolved to be better. Change and personal improvement come with dedication, hard work, support from people around you and time; lots of time. Many of these changes have been micro changes, too small to catch on their own but easy to perceive over time. There is always a history lesson to look back on when achieving any sort of change.
As I sat from the comfort of my plastic armchair, I watched her turn and burn around the barrels in a cloud of dust and metaphorical confetti and thought back to a year ago when she was hesitant to trust that her abilities would match her ambition. In my mind, I could hear my friend Geoff hollering from the gate, “Reese, let go of the saddle horn.” Today, I sat and watched 365 days of cumulative intention translate into forgetting that the horn was even part of the saddle.
This was a good lesson for us all to let go of the saddle horn and trust in the horse and in our abilities. And that holding on to the wrong part of the saddle will inevitably cause you to fall off the seat of life. When history and intention meet it leaves room for evaluation of how you got to where you are and the importance in where you came from to get there.
I have given pause to the ideology that the past has more merit than we give it credit for in making a better future. Sometimes, there is value in making a resolution to slow down and reflect on the historical value of how we have gotten to where we are and how we can use that to get to where we want to be, both personally and as a community.
The Western heritage our Durango community was founded on comes with a set of values and old ways, slower, more intentional, more practical ways.
The Western heritage of yesterday symbolized a simpler life and a tighter knit community, where we seemed to be invested in the betterment of not only ourselves but our neighbors, because back then, we seemed to see that if we all were doing better, then our community was better as a whole. Not that we all needed to be the same or get a blue ribbon at the County Fair for showing up but that we could rely on each other’s blue ribbon strengths and be stronger as a community.
I think back to stories told to me about my family members riding horses to school here and how neighbors depended on one another to survive, and I believe that even though I didn’t experience that time personally, those must have been “the good ol’ days” and there would be merit in resolving to bring some of those attributes of community back today. This mindset would serve our community today as it did many yesterdays ago. Just like my daughter taking those micro steps chasing barrels, those community goals are something to begin in 2024 and build on to make Durango stronger as a community throughout the coming year.
Slowing down, finding our strengths and recognizing the strengths of others in our community so that we can all succeed is a great goal for 2024 and not that different from 1884, shortly after this mountain town was founded. We can all find our own personal saddle horn to let go of and subsequently a ride to enjoy because of it.
Jenny Johnston is a fourth generation Durango local, part-time rodeo announcer and full-time wrangler to two lil’ buckaroos.
