Round Top, TX: To Bloom and Love Wherever We Find Ourselves

Chris:

More cows because I love them so much.  It occurred to me while riding past these cows that both of my grandfathers were dairy farmers.  Maybe that has something to do with my attraction to cows.

 

Meet Mr. Craig Moreau, former Houston fireman turned librarian at the Round Top Family Library, an impressive library in this town of 90 residents!  They serve a couple thousand patrons pulling from the ranch land residents surrounding the town.  The library is strongly supported and serves as a community center offering art and gardening programs in collaboration with the local school system.

Like many small towns one of the challenges for area residents is how to retain local talent and stem the brain drain.  Unless one inherits a ranch in the area it is nigh impossible for a young person to purchase property as land prices have sky rocketed and are being purchased by investors from bigger Texas cities.  Mr. Moreau has brilliant ideas about how to approach this problem.  The graduation class from the local high school is 15-20 students.

 

When David and I look at the maps before I begin my daily ride we randomly choose a meeting place to share a picnic lunch and he will often ride with me from that point.  We had no idea what little gem of a town we had chosen when we picked Round Top.  It just so happens that our visit here coincides with the world famous Antiques Arts Fair so for 11 miles I rode by antique —I wouldn’t call them shops.  They were more like huge complexes where this week long festival brings  in millions of dollars to the town and area.  Eleven miles!!!!

 

The former librarian had a saying which is preserved in the outdoor garden space on library grounds:  Why dream ordinary?  In addition to the antique show, the town also boasts a music festival that attracts musicians like Yo Yo Ma!  They certainly seem to know how to dream big here in this beautiful area of Texas.

To avoid some of the antique shopping frenzy traffic we rode on backroads and it was one of the most fun riding days yet biking past ranches and smaller farms with wildflowers in full bloom.

 

You can purchase a cow hide for as little as $199.

When I rode past these horses they all watched me so I stopped and talked to them a bit.  The one in the middle had had enough of my pontificating and stamped her foot at me so I took the hint and pedaled on.  A mile later the biggest and baddest coyote I’ve ever seen ran across the road about 30 feet in front of me.  Tony, you would have been amazed at how fast I rode out of there! 

When we rode past a sign that said World’s Smallest Catholic Church, I knew enough to pull into the parking lot to have a look to satisfy David’s curiosity.  We had a lovely little visit and looked inside and I added the names of our children and their loved ones to the list of prayers written in notebooks.  If I’ve learned anything on this trip it’s the importance —no, the necessity of loving and being loved.  We have heard powerful stories of love and the importance of finding a place to live and love in community and the woundedness that a person carries when this is not allowed.  Perhaps our greatest calling is to bloom and love right wherever we find ourselves.  And we are missing our children…so we name them.  If they ever find themselves in the worlds smallest Catholic Church in rural Texas they will find their names!