Blazing Trails for Future Generations

I thought about how people leave a legacy after I read Heather Layman’s article in her Cowgirl Ramblings column entitled “Leaving a Legacy.”

It was thrilling to read her words about the inductees in the Cowboy Hall of Fame. She said, “.... the commonality was all of these people were and are tough as a new bride’s biscuits.”

Layman went on to describe how tough they were tending livestock in the worst of weather, cut trails, built barns, rode rough horses in even tougher country all so they could provide for their families, community and country. She said they had “grit in their guts and steel in their veins.”

Stamina and determination was certainly a trait of the early trailblazers of our country. Have we given up on blazing trails nowadays or are we opening up new trails in a different way?

Even though many young people today seem to be forever looking at a screen, I think the majority realizes what they owe to past generations and what is needed of them for future generations. I think they will leave a trail that will look different than the trails past generations left on the land.

It takes grit and stamina to make a living, to raise a child, to volunteer in the community, to be there when someone needs help. I think of all the dedicated professional people who put others’ needs ahead of their own.

I believe that most of those in coming generations will step up and do what they can to leave their mark, meet the challenges that are sure to come and provide a step up for the following generation. Maybe that mark won’t be visible but will be carried in the hearts and minds of those who come after them.

Albert Einstein, who certainly left a visible mark for mankind, said it very well, “Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.”