I'm Finally Home!
If you've been following along then by now you must realize I have moved myself and my business back to Colorado. I have been gone from this place for nearly 25 years. Coming home, again, wasn't something I was exactly looking forward to. I just didn't think it fit me anymore. Can I just tell you how completely wrong I was? When my dad died about 5 years ago, I started to hear the mountains calling me home but I just refused to listen. I thought there was no way that being a mountain girl fit the woman I had grown into. I had lived near an ocean for so long that being landlocked was scary to me. Not to mention uprooting myself away from dear friends and all I had known for a good, long time was completely frightening. However, very quickly after arriving back in Colorado, I found my true happiness again. Something I hadn't felt in a really long time. I felt surprisingly and overwhelmingly at home!
My childhood friends embraced me very quickly. I even connected with a few who weren't my closest friends when we were younger but I can say have quickly become the very best people I have in my life! How incredible is that? I've gone on some magical adventures getting reacquainted with these mountains and it's been so amazing and so fun. I find myself whispering "look at how beautiful" or "man, how lucky are we that we get to live here" all of the time. I'm sure some of my friends are sick of hearing it but I can tell you it's a truly amazing place to live. I wish I could truly capture it's beauty with my camera but I keep thinking "yeah this isn't doing it justice" or "I don't think I'll ever capture every color in that sunrise the way I'm seeing it." I feel so completely blessed to live in such a stunning place.The scenery, the people, the animals, the overall feeling of being in a happy place has been so surprising and so comforting. I have felt more joy and love here than I can put into words. I am truly overwhelmed by the love and support I have gotten since arriving home. The greatest thing is that I am never bored. There is always something to do here. Go hiking, experience something new, balloon festivals, wolf encounters, deer in your front yard and so much more. So much has changed about this place since I last lived here. Some of the change is good and some of it is not so great. Small towns have grown into big cities (ya'll Woodland Park has a hospital and an aquatic center...WHAT??), the kids I grew up with are adults with kids in high school (I'm not that old so how is that a thing?) and there are tattoo shops and marijuana stores on just about every corner but the beauty of this place has remained, the sweet nature of the people has never changed and the overwhelming feeling I get of getting to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world is just awesome! The best gift is having the feeling that I am finally where I belong. I am home!
Here are a few pictures from my adventures here: (excuse some of the iPhone pictures but sometimes you gotta just live in your moments right?)
