Sherrie GladeAlthough I grew up in Minnesota, Wyoming is home. It’s where I want to be buried. After being away, crossing the state line always brings a lump to my throat. I believe in the power of the Wyoming landscape.

The badlands – austere, desolate, thorny, sharp, I am so alone – they goad me into self reflection, into confronting my deepest anxieties. Death and destruction surround me in deceptively beautiful layers of volcanic ash. I have walked in these badlands and screamed at God, but resurrection is no more evident to me than in these same transfigured badlands in spring.

Though “plagues” (kasha weed, Russian thistle, scorpions, black widow spiders, rattlesnakes, bull snakes, mice, pack rats, kangaroo rats, raccoons, cotton tail rabbits, gnats, mosquitoes, flies, crickets and flying red ants) test my patience and composure, they teach me the great cycles of life.

There are few things that depress me, frighten me and force me to seek companionship more than the wind. And then there are the dancing, playful breezes that soothe and brush away the bugs.

Yellowstone, a family vacation destination since I was little, evokes the magical world of being a child again. I am enchanted by geysers, mountain goats clinging to sheer cliffs, thermal life forms, bawling bison calves and the possibility of seeing bears and wolves. I find myself skipping down the boardwalks.

Endless grasslands speak to me of bounty and adventure. They beckon me. I am back in the saddle again.

The majestic mountains compel my reverent silence. Endless vistas bring start perspective to my brooding. The forests wrap me in a green velvet comforter. The high country takes my hyperventilating breath away. As I float down a slope on skis in deep snow, I am one with the earth. Bubbling streams invite a chuckle from my heart.

And then there are the heavens. Oh, the November skies! Nothing else has so completely convinced me of the existence of God. I cannot look up at a Wyoming star-filled sky and not be at peace. I believe in the power of the Wyoming landscape to heal.