Wide Open Spaces

"She needs wide open spaces

room to make her big mistakes." 

~ The Dixie Chicks

This song has been on my mind ever since I interviewed Larry Seyer last week, a 9-time Grammy award-winning producer, engineer and musician who played a pivotal role in launching The Dixie Chicks.  I hadn't thought about the song in a long while, an old favorite.  It is echoed even more by my current surroundings, on a visit to the wide open spaces of my original home in
Colorado.

Room to make big mistakes doesn't necessarily imply "big mistakes" are inevitable.  In fact, I would suggest that it is the mistakes and apparent missteps which can often open up the spaces even more.  It all depends on our response.  We can close down or we can open up.  And sometimes it can even be a combination of the two.

There is a tendency in life to seek to fill a wide open space.  I see it symbolically all around me, as the much smaller Denver I remember from my youth sprawls out upon the plains.  Sometimes when a wide open space is in front of us, it is best to pause, take a deep breath, and simply experience the wonder of Wide Open.  We will know soon enough just what space it is we are called to occupy next...