San Agustin, Buena Vista, Mexico, 2025

“Empty saddles in the old corral
Where do you ride tonight?
Are you rounding up the dogies, the strays of long ago
Are you on the trail of buffalo?
Empty saddles in the old corral
Where do you ride tonight?
Are there rustlers on the border, or a band of Navajo
Are you heading for the Alamo?” The Sons of the Pioneers

Some small part of me will never let go of my childhood dream of being a cowboy. The reality is I have ridden a horse maybe a dozen times, mostly barn-runners on an over worn trail. Today I cantered across open range. Three times. That won’t seem like much of an accomplish to many, but I will be 78 next week and I was thrilled to finally have a little taste of the freedom I always imagined those men had.

More accurately, the horse cantered and I held on, bouncing in the saddle like a trampoline. But I didn’t fall off. As I walked through the wildflowers and past the Ladybug shaped sweat lodge, from the corral back to my room, my heart was so full my eyes were watering.

In a world that seems to be constantly raging at the slightest provocation, I am so grateful for the moments and places like this, where I have felt a complete peace with the universe. Other moments have been sitting outside my tent in the Serengeti staring at a predawn sky full of stars, sitting on a Wyoming mountainside watching the sunrise over Lake Jackson and the Tetons, or sitting with my dog in Washington Square by my home watching twilight blend with street and porch lights, turning my neighborhood into a fairy tale vision.

For more of Bill’s photographs, go to https://www.billdurrence.com/index