I'm looking at some catastrophic winds. Some of those winds just blew through here in the Texas Panhandle and we're in the middle of the latest disastaster and of the recovery and relief efforts.
And I’m here to tell you everybody is shining brightly because, you know why? It’s not because we’re so damn wind blown, it’s because…
Because we are from the Texas Panhandle, we are from a pioneering spirit that gives us this voice and this stance. It gives us this fortitude and it allows me to be very proud from where I come from. Those catastrophic winds that I'm talking about are happening across this nation and in many different ways.
It's coming in the form of spiritual bankruptcy, financial bankruptcy, nutritional bankruptcy and a lack of clear communication.
Well, he ain't much of a talker until you get him a talkin.
The one thing that gets him a talking….
Do you know what?
Well, there is not just one storefront, there are actually 3 and they all are possible because of the Micro-processing center he and the Trammel family built and brought to market.
The WHOLE dang Trammell family.
-Trammell Cattle
-Panhandle Meats
-Tir Bluen
-Ranchers Storefront
Do you see how much of a whirlwind that is?
They are on top of it. And I'm very proud to be able to be right there in the middle of it all and to be their sidekick.
Especially Justin’s sidekick.
He of course is the first person I shook hands with and who I asked to go on this journey with me. It was right when I got off harvest. I was in the middle of writing the Harvest of Deception.
I’m going to ask yourself to ask yourself a question or two... or three…
How many times do we actually hear from other people?
How often does someone ask if they can have a word with you?
How many times in real life does someone come up to you and reach out to shake your hand and ask you - “Would you please tell me what you do and why you do it?”
Lately, when I've gone out to the burn zone and I've come across these ranchers, I can tell they have been taxed to the limit. They have a little confusion, they're a little bit suspect of this ole boy, Texas Slim.
What I'm really asking everybody to do is to just… just take a pause.
Everything I've ever done in my lifetime, and especially, ever since I started the Beef Initiative is that I've been able to reflect upon myself and those in which I have served and who have served me.
It takes two folks.
Many times in this life, a lot of people do not know how to receive. Therefore, we know how to take.
A lot of people do not know how to give, they know how to serve.
Many people don't know how to receive because all they do is take.
When you know how to serve, you know how to receive.
To receive is to serve and to serve is to receive. There's something I jotted down years ago and I'll be the first to admit. It was something that I'd written down because I needed to receive a part of me that was lost.
I want to share it here:.
“When people are asleep their spirits wander off. When they are awake, their bodies are like an open door, so that everything they touch becomes an entanglement.
Day after day they used their minds to stir up trouble. They become both swords.
Sneaky & Secretive.
They are consumed with anxiety over trivial matters but remain arrogantly oblivious to the things truly worth fearing. Their words fly from their mouths like a crossbow.
So sure, are they that they know right from wrong. They cling to their positions as They had sworn an oath. So sure are they a victory?
Their gradual decline is all like autumn fading into winter. This is how they dwindle day by day, They drown. And what are they? You cannot make them turn back. They began to suffocate as tho sealed up in a box. This is how they decline and into insanity As their minds approach death, nothing can cause them to turn back towards the light.”
Where do you think that comes from? Does it come from ole Texas Slims noggin? Or does it come from ancient times? How old are those words? They always been there? Is it something new? Is it something old? Is it something the wind blew in? What is it?
It's some wisdom that I love to be able to reflect on and whenever I come out to this place, the second largest canyon in the United States And I hang my boots on the edge of the canyon. And I think about Comancheria, I think about….
The Empire Of the Summer Moon. I think about Quahna Parker.. I think about Charles Goodnight. I think about the Goodiight-LovingTrail. I think about all the bison down there. I think about all the long horns that were discovered that came rambling through here during the Civil War when all the soldiers were off fighting each other and we were killing each other because we had come to a form of spiritual senility
Are we in that form of spiritual senility as a nation right now? Are you in that form of senility as an individual? Well, whenever I met ole Justin Trammell On the county square from which I was born. I could tell that this man had that wisdom in him and he was willing to listen to another man. That was for fighting back against that senility to which a lot of people are feeling. Feeling it through the catastrophic winds which are blowing harder each time people have a conversation. Those that do not know how to tell a tale to which you can find protection.
And peace of mind. And it all starts with an angel of a view.
A handshake that matters.
And a gaze into another person's eyes.
To where you can rest assured.
That the words you're about to exchange, Have the chance of a lifetime.
To help forge a legacy.
To help forge a legacy. That will be passed on to the next generation of ranchers.
That no wind nor no enemy. Nor no disaster. Could ever put out that flame of authenticity and integrity. So that a man of very few words Who I met several years ago, just a few hundred yards from where I sit right now.
Well, sometimes Cowboy talk doesn't blow a lot of wind. But it carries a lot of punch. See I come from the dirt roads of West Texas, and I'm a Punchy ass hippie-punk-cowboy that loves to shake another man’s hand, look him in the eye and tell them exactly what my intentions are.
The only way I got there…
I was able to take a pause and say hey I'm going to listen to myself first before I listen to all this bullshit blowin in the wind these days.
A lot of sneakiness, a lot of people out there being secretive and one thing.
Hold on, real quick…did I tell you about what I learned over there in Thailand when I was in my 20s. My first venture over to the land of smiles. Well… I was fascinated with ole Buddha. Seemed like a pretty cool dude. To tell you the truth, there are four noble truths When it comes to Buddhism. And once again, Buddhism is a philosophy…well at least to me it is and I do pride myself on being somewhat of a philosopher.
All suffering Comes from three, these three points. See Buddha was very tuned in on how to get rid of suffering.
Greed
Anger / hatred
Ignorance. In Buddhism, they call this, the not knowing, Not knowing your consequence or not being able to trust into the unknown.
Every time I meet a stranger, my intentions are to cause no suffering, but to serve in which there is no suffering.
Has been going on for hundreds of years and in different forms and fashions.
The Comanches used agricultural burns so the bison would return. These lands have seen fires for 100s and even 1000s of years. This last agricultural burn that burnt over 1.2 million acres, well nobody really knows. But one thing that is definitive: there's a lot of suffering because of a lot of greed, a lot of hatred and anger and a lot of not knowing.
So I'm patient and I'm persistent because that's what the winds of West Texas taught me especially when I came to this ledge. So I could take a pause, so I could truly understand what this whirlwind is all about. So, next time you go up there and you shake a rancher's hand, just remember they're all unique and as I said in my last article. I’m calling out Cole Bolton as one of the smartest Cattlemen I've ever known in my life and a damn good business partner. Jason Wrich - you wake up feeling obligated to serve that man because of his integrity and of his vision. Justin (Chatterbox) Trammell - the man of few words.
My spirit is obligated to him and his family for everything they've done in the town of where I was born..
My actions in my life are to save children's lives through teaching their parents that the best way to take a pause is to go “Shake A Ranchers Hand.” The winds of change will flow a lot more like water instead of like the flames of suffering.
It's kind of cold and windy today up here in West Texas. But I guarantee you the flames of the visions that were first seen in my mind with that first handshake. Well, there's a new wildfire coming and it's going to be delivered right through the gates of THE Beef Initiative.
For those of you that might be confused, I just say this. Those with ears will hear and those with eyes will see. The new modern day cattle drive is well underway.
So pull yourself up by your bootstraps and just know we’re about to serve it up.
Y'all be good to each other.
I Am Texas Slim!
Are you?
PS
Ya’ll didn’t think I’d forget to tune your ears with a song of days gone by with the wind, did ya;)
