One of the first gifts given in Wyoming are the wide open spaces. Like the anthemic Dixie Chicks song– can I get a hell yes! My 10 year old self used to run down the stairs when the music video came on CMT. My fam would literally leave the TV on that channel just so this moment could occur again and again. Or we’d turn to the VCR, having of course also manually recorded the video on VHS tape. I could only take awe in the image of their tour bus, just hauling ass down a country hill.

I’m coming into my own version of that, driving down a dirt road in my Subaru, windows open. Or just looking up any number of inches, into the sky that is– e v e r y w h e r e. I’ve been thinking so much about the sky. My last Chicago apartment had almost everything, and my heart is always going to swell over that place. But in the final steps of parting I realized one great truth– it held no window from which I could see the sky. If I looked out and up, my view was met with buildings, no glimpses of blue. The sky is just such a huge, essential gift to living. As are the stars, beaming out here like an infinite number of casually strewn diamonds almost every night. This feels important to me right now.

But you know what I’m finding even more important in this moment than wide open spaces– wide open hearts (cheese alert, but hear me out!!). Leaving Chicago shone a glaring, perfect light on all the relationships I had created there. And when I just gave people the opportunity to get real with me about life’s ups and downs and how we all get sad and we all get scared and we all dream– nearly every person took that opportunity. I am still getting text messages and emails and phone calls every day from all you wonderful people. I’ve moved 1,400 miles and I’ve probably never felt closer to many of you. I’m incredibly joyed that this has happened, but I know now that I could have allowed it to transpire without such measures as moving to Wyoming.

So therein is my new daily mission– not just to live in these wide open spaces, but to myself be wide open– to possibilities and risks and connections with people. A great friend gave me a goodbye card that read “Always believe something wonderful is about to happen.”

Moment of Gratitude: Life and people are inherently open, if we allow them to be.