Where Unicorn Skies Kiss The Open Fields...

 

Hi!

It's all but impossible not be in complete awe when you live where this happens on a pretty regular basis. 

Living in the wide open can, if you let it, leave a lot of room to grow. Having never lived in a big city, or a city of any kind for more than about eight months, I can only speak from the perspective I've lived. Now, before all of the city dwellers out there jump all over me about my limited life experience, all I ask is that you understand that the very same thing can be said of your life experience. 

Just as I have never experienced the hip-to-hip crowds of an NYC subway, or living in an apartment complex that houses more people than live in my entire town, you have never experienced the devastating silence that can threaten to swallow you whole, or a complete and absolute lack of anonymity. Just as I can't possibly know the feeling of walking down sidewalks so packed that literal brushes with humanity are inevitable, or what it's like to be stuck in traffic for more than a minute or two, you can't fathom the idea of having to drive 20 miles for a jug of milk, or living at least an hour and a half from the nearest Starbucks. 

My point is this. We should never assume things.

I can't assume that, because you live entrenched in diversity, that because you interact with greater swaths of humanity in a day than I encounter in months, you have some inherent sense of inclusivity. 

By that same token, you can't assume that, because I live where diversity needs to be sought out, where anyone new tends to be noticed... instantly, I have a closed mind when it comes to accepting every human with open arms just as they are. 

This is why I believe it's important for all of us to live somewhere unfamiliar to us. I don't think you have to stay there, but I really believe we should all sit at a table other than the one we grew up at long enough to get a fair sampling of what it's like.

We tend to be comfortable staying with what we know, what's familiar, where we know the lay of the land, where we can navigate blindfolded if we need to. But, how can we grow, how can we really know we've lived our lives as broadly, as widely, and with as much depth as we were meant to if we never change the scenery, never turn the page?

I don't think it even takes a move that far. I don't think you have to move to a different country, or even a different province or state to gain the benefits. It simply takes a move far enough that you don't know anyone, and nobody knows you. It takes a move far enough to surround yourself with quiet if noise is what you know, and throw you into chaos if peace is all you've lived.

We have such a short time to walk this planet, it's a shame to avoid discomfort when that is the very thing that can push us to live the biggest life we can. 

Where the unicorn skies kiss the open fields, I feel at peace. But, that's me.

Living in the city, I found myself seeking out some modicum of quiet by heading to the roof of my apartment building in the middle of the night. I wanted so badly to like it there. The hustle, the people, always having something to do, walking distance to everything.

Someone else, I'm sure, would be driven to madness by the quiet, by the solitude. You'd likely be finding your own rooftop trying desperately to find what you didn't know you could possibly miss. 

One person's peace is another person's torment. 

Just because I am not wired to live the way you live and find peace, doesn't make your way of living somehow wrong. 

Embracing diversity does nothing but help us live bigger, brighter, and better lives. It builds understanding, which can do nothing but breed compassion and empathy.

Sounds awesome to me.

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May you live broad, bright, shiny, and as big as your biggest dream.

May you stride outside of comfort, test the waters, test them all, for not everything is as it may seem.

May you be willing to embrace all colours of the rainbow, judging only by how they treat others.

May you, in doing so, find there are fabulous humans everywhere, just waiting to be discovered.

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