Long Time Gone

I am back and ready for more.

After a few months of obscene changes and adjustments, I am slowly healing from all the change. All the chaos and upheaval is settling and I am able to start sweeping.

I now appreciate the quality of the lifestyle we had in the Roaring Fork Valley. People there are truly unique. Many are naturally beautiful, absolutely stunning. Maybe it's because they are always out in the high mountain sunshine exerting their bodies and taking in the cleansing thin mountain air. Maybe it's because most are privileged enough to not have to work for a living and they have time to concentrate on living the fullest. Most of America can only dream of what people like that are like, yet alone see it.

What is really refreshing about this new home of ours is that people here actually have to work to pay their bills. Although their bodies are not as sculpted and their eyes not as bright, there is a different knowledge and understanding in their body language. People here are tired at the end of the day from working at a job they hold on to so tight because if they lose it, it means they will not have enough money to pay for a necessity. People here are friendly- I mean friendly, like let me stop by your home with an apple pie kind of friendly.

There's train tracks that travel through the legnth of the town. When a train passes, it leaves the wind smelling of Colorado history, and makes me think of ladies wearing long dresses, and men working hard on their farms. The landscape here is spectacular. I have stopped comparing it to my old home since there's nothing like the landscape in Basalt, CO. Here, there's more open sky, big sky, not like Montana, but somewhat similar in that there's sharp mountains, rolling hills, and grey rocky bluffs. Way out 12, 000 foot mountains are covered in snow. Cows lazily stroll off in the distance, haystacks are neatly staked next to red barns. Life is slower here.

As I watch the seasons change, my kitchen starts to feel more like home. I need a dose of cold weather and a few pots of chili and homemade cookies to take over the corners of this home. I need a few more stains in my oven and a little bit of dust on the top of my refrigerator to truly call it home. Time, I believe, is life's purest and most effective medication. Letting it pass and savoring the moments in between is the ultimate challenge.