Farewell Colorado
“An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted.” — ARTHUR MILLER
When I look at the date and year, I sort of need to pinch myself to realize that I lived in Colorado for nearly 24 years. Longer than living in Massachusetts where I spent my whole childhood and left after high school, longer than my 4 years in Ithaca New York where I went to college. MUCH longer than my Los Angeles stint for Graduate school (a year and a half at most) and of course longer than the New York City, 7 year itch that drove me to Colorado in the first place.
On April 15, 1999 Colorado was still a square state in the middle of the country. A flyover state unless you were an extreme athlete, skier or outdoors person (which I was NOT!) it would not be a “regular” place to move. Yet I decided after coming to Colorado for my very dear friends wedding in September of 1998. When I got back to NYC, I headed into work, in a torrential downpour. When I got off the elevator onto the 18th floor in the of One Battery Park Plaza, I was soaked to the bone. When I was asked how my vacation was and how the wedding was, out of my mouth I said, “I am moving to Colorado.” Everyone laughed, until I gave my notice and moved 6 months later without a job or place to live — I now affectionately refer to this as my first parachute jump.
I purchased a half duplex in Mayfair/Hilltop (affectionately called Maytop by me ;-)) in May of 2001. When I told people how much I bought it for, everybody thought I had thought I had lost my mind, people said, “I can’t believe you spent that kind of money on a half duplex”. Well I for one am so very glad that I made the investment then, because it has become my nest egg for my future!
My early years in Colorado were amazing, Denver was going through a renaissance of sorts and arts, music, culture and of course entrepreneurship (and social entrepreneurship) was on the leading edge. The frontier was circling its wagons around amazing issues of innovation, sustainability and democracy, moving Colorado from RED square state to a purple one.
Because Colorado was so innovative I was able to meet and work with the most extraordinary people from all parts of Colorado and the world, nonprofit, small biz, LARGE corporations, government, academia and media. I worked on unheard of things like the Pachamama Alliances Awakening the Dreamer, the Democratic National Conventions BIG TENT, Ashoka’s change your city campaign AND hundreds (if not thousands) of events of all kinds, that did things like raising thousands or millions of dollars, raising awareness or “simply” changing the landscape because it happened. When I first moved to Colorado, I worked for Huntington’s Disease Society of America. It was a foundational education for me in so many ways. It taught me agility because no one knew what HD was. I met hundreds of people very quickly, some of whom are still dear to me in my life. This was the key to helping me to fundraise for the cause, this got me highly networked in a very short time. Probably the most important lesson for me was resilience in the face of incomprehensible suffering.
“She stood in the storm and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails.” ~Elizabeth Edwards
My deepest joy was being a part of several beloved communities. Two that are unique to Colorado are swimming and yoga. Why you may ask, swimming and yoga are not in and of themselves unique to Colorado yet, where else but Colorado would one be found swimming OUTSIDE in the middle of January when the high temperature for the day was 30 degrees (fahrenheit). I met and became friends with some of the most kind, hardy and steadfast people in the pool outside in the middle of the winter. Our ONLY challenge was avoiding the chill and slipping on ice between the door to the pool itself. I will dearly miss these friends and yes swimming outside all year long.
My yoga community for nearly 20 years was founded by a dear friend and aptly called Kindness Yoga. I was steadfast in my practice for many years and found a dear tribe. Sadly the pandemic and politics devastated my dojo and I am thankful to say perseverance won out and a couple of my teachers who I am deeply GRATEFUL to call friends sustained their teaching in some delightful ways. There are not enough thank you’s for these people and practices in my life.
My life in Colorado brought me an Eskie (American Eskimo) rescue. Dogs are a huge part of Colorado culture. Although I LOVE animals and they seem to love me, my lifestyle wasn’t suited for animals, especially dogs. However, this princess who I named Chotchkie (the yiddish word for trinket) CHOSE me and was with me for 11 years and went over the rainbow bridge during the pandemic. She gave me many gifts and one was that I believe she knew that if she stayed, I could never leave her or Colorado.
“There comes a day when you realize turning the page is the best feeling in the world, because you realize there’s so much more to the book than the page you were stuck on.” ― Zayn Malik
With every ending there is a new beginning, in fact everyone deserves new beginnings. Yet what I have learned the hard way is that new beginnings are not gifts given to us — actually they are made from our own choices. When we make a choice to start again aka hit the reset button we are able to create a new beginning.
This all happened so quickly it was clearly guided by otherworldly beings it has been simply magical. Please understand none of this was on the plan even 3 months ago. This is clearly all about divine timing and guidance.
Colorado you and your people have brought me so many gifts and for that I am forever grateful.
“No, this is not the beginning of a new chapter in my life; this is the beginning of a new book! That first book is already closed, ended, and tossed into the seas; this new book is newly opened, has just begun!” — C. Joybell
Again I feel like I need to pinch myself, I find myself in my new home in Kansas City with a ticket to Portugal at the end of February. My second parachute drop. Again, I intend to grow through the people I meet and places I see. 2023 I’VE GOTCHA!
