Sunset over the open space of the great plains

TORONTO TO COLORADO: A reflection on the open space of the great plains

Last updated: October 15th, 2018

I’ve lately come to appreciate the beauty of blank space. On a recent trip from Toronto to Colorado I opted to take the train rather than fly, looking forward to the vast emptiness of the Great Plains to clear my mind from the mental overstimulation of a big city trip. On the leg from Chicago to Denver we rolled past thousands of acres of farmland, interrupted only by small patches of trees and farmhouses. The unrelenting blankness of the terrain lulled my mind into a restful, blank state. In a world fixated on form, that which is without form is thought to be of less value. Hence the reason why the plains, arctic and desert are considered boring — just flat, open space with nothing to look at. Chugging through Illinois we passed a wind farm, which indicated what really is on this empty land—potential. The land is not empty of anything, it’s full of wind energy waiting to be harvested. The late afternoon sun spilled through some cracks in the clouds, scattering sunlight across the farmer’s snow-covered fields. The land is rich, waiting to erupt with life in the spring. The Great Plains are great not just for the resources they bear, but for the possibility to roam. Blank, open space is freedom to go anywhere, inviting the body into aimlessness, a state of complete freedom. The mind too is free to roam, detached from forms to look at, gawk over and grasp, allowing it to come into its own as a flexible tool of unlimited imaginative potential.

We have the potential to experience empty space as nothingness or as full of spiritual substance. Spirit enters our life in a number of ways: nature, relationships, the aura of a church, connecting to a motivating speaker, to name but a few. If we can realize the tangible potential of the Great Plains we can open up space in our psyche to manifest its true potential as a contact point for spirit to come into form for humankind.

Whereas the world of form evokes thoughts and feelings, the world of no form just is. It is ours to attribute whatever meaning we wish. The etheric quality of open space invites us to actualize the spiritual substance that lies within. All we have to do is open our mind, open our hearts and let the spirit flow.