It's About Community

It’s About Community

I’m starting to understand the magic of Townsend Montana.

Now, my thoughts will change over time or should I say grow.

Life is a process and observations become more clear with time.

Last night Kathy and I went to one of the Towns biggest events of the year, the rodeo.

The stands were packed and you could tell this was a highlight that brings people together.

We sat next to a couple who are moving here from Washington state. They say their son was looking for a place to start over, drove through Townsend, called them and said “I found it.”

What Townsend has is like stepping back in time, a time when kids were safe going anywhere by themselves and doors don’t have to be locked.

There are 2200 people here and we have some great local places but if you are used to a big city with ton’s of choices, this may not be to your liking.

And that could be the saving grace of this tiny town.

Helena and Bozeman are being discovered but Townsend is just far enough away from the world, to not yet be as attractive to those looking for a new place to move with fancy grocery stores and big box shopping.

We have a couple of hardware stores. I’ll tell you more about that later.

A few old school bars, a brewery and a distillery and other shops, but no fancy boutiques or tee shirt shops.

This is a working farm town, period.

Fancy is what you find 40 minutes away and people here, including me, are fine with that.

So last night at the rodeo when a little girl (10 I think) did her first public barrel race the crowd went nuts.

I’m sure that little girl felt like she was a queen out there with her community behind her.

They screamed her over the finish line and applauded longer than they had to.

But this is what you do in small town rural America.

This morning as I look over my social media, arguments and candidate bashing and more great news from the Biden White House fill the feeds.

But what fills me is knowing God has a plan and gave Kathy and me an escape, not from the world, but from the crazy.

A place where we can think about what really matters and witness it first hand in a screaming crowd just happy to be together.