Above is a picture of my new cowboy boots and I must say they are exquisite.
When my daughter Sarah was young I bought my first pair on a whim from Aldo in the Toronto Eaton Centre. I loved them so much that when the soles wore out I had them re-soled, then wore them till they burst. I wanted a new pair ever since.
As life moved in different directions, I forgot about the feelings of owning them and what they meant to me. Important or not, I was certainly not hung up on the ego ownership of them. I liked the fit and how they felt on my feet as I walked.
I’ve always considered myself to be “a little bit cowboy”. As a youngster had a cowboy hat with a whistle attached and a holster. I remember holding the fake gun up and looking at the two halves of plastic that never completely met properly. It didn’t matter, I played the games anyway. I’m not sure if I ever asked for boots, but feel my subconscious knew what was missing to complete the package, aside from the horse.
Adding to this I like the outdoors, dirt and farming. (One day soon will take a horseback vacation with my girls in western Canada.) It all makes sense. It’s no secret either the boys from Blue Rodeo are my kind of music and whatever other country music, including Taylor Swift, touches my soul. I feel my connection to the earth when I hear their tunes.
Cowboy shirts just secure the fact. (I do have great taste in good cowboy shirts too.) Does it make sense to say, if you wear something you like and it looks good on while making you feel comfortable, it’s probably made for you and you should be wearing it? Wearing a cowboy shirt for me completes a right of passage. Back then the air was pure and food was good. Much was hard to come by. Life was so much different. I’m sure I was a cowboy in a past life.
Presently, I’m bridging my present connection to the past by wearing my boots. The smell of quality leather grounds me in the here and now. While wearing them I feel connected to a part of me that understands my decision to own a pair. I can almost feel my boots in the stirrups while riding my horse and surveying the rolling hills before me as the land stretches as far to the horizon as the eye can see. People worked hard for that land. They fought and died for it.
My boots are also significant because of the time I waited patiently for them. A story for another time perhaps, but I waited over 20 years for my new pair never forgetting how much I wanted a new pair to love. The lessons from this are bigger than life itself, as you can imagine. I would be happy to share them with you while wearing my new cowboy boots. Yeehaw! ~CY
