One of my last nights in Chicago, a friend of mine said of my new adventure: “You will find things you never even expected to find”.

I felt a quelling of worry in that moment. Because it was a simple and it was right and it was something I couldn’t mess up.

Just take Chicago– I moved there thinking I was seeking was my advertising career. And while achieving that and becoming an art director is something I find a core sense of pride in, my greatest Chicago joys were definitely things I couldn’t have foreseen. I think about all the mornings I let the narrow brick sidewalks or the wide concrete lakefront path lead me to destinations near and far, and how over time Old Town began to feel so essential to my identity. Or how I spent months walking longingly past the Old Town School of Folk Music, wondering if I could make good music in there. Only to find that the answer was yes– I could make good music but further great friends and perhaps even greater satisfaction in myself. By the end of my 8 years I took these things for granted– of course I lived in Chicago for the people, and the music, and the neighborhood. But absolutely all of those things I hadn’t known I would find.

It is blissfully inevitable then that the same must be true out here in Wyoming. I came for the nature, the feeling of freedom, the chance to rekindle myself. But I will find things here I never expected to find, things that may even become more important to me than my original reasons. And I will honor those moments as they come, however big or small. Like yesterday’s hike, where the original trail was closed for restoration. I immediately was all FML I just drove all the way out here and now I can’t do what I want. But then I followed the detour to the new trail that had been created and low and behold, it was better. It took me high above the lake and gave me a vantage point I hadn’t even known I wanted, or needed.

Moment of Gratitude: The things we are looking for find us.