It’s equally easy and hard to believe it’s been a year since we arrived in Colorado, three days ahead of our stuff and began building a home, and a life here.
The couple of weeks before we hit the road, we were packing, and cleaning, and wrapping up work - closing out our life in Durham and getting ready for the adventure ahead. Sometimes, our minds power through stressful situations without really logging or processing what’s happening until later.
It’s only now that I realize that my steady diet of alternating nachos and buffalo wings for dinners during that time was a (delicious, crunchy) stress response.
But it was also a time to look ahead, to feel the weight of the adventure on the horizon, and taste the excitement through lots of nacho and wings dates. Our fridge had been emptied anyway, in preparation for starting afresh.
The move, adjusting to the time differences, and building a new life together here has been a series of clouds and silver linings
Denver is very dry, very far away from everything I’ve known of the east coast, forever away from friends and family and often a bit isolating.
It also yields rainbows everytime it rains - rainbows we can see from the sliding glass balcony door of our apartment, and there are a plethora of community gardens to join, through Denver Urban Gardens (DUG). There’s always a breeze, even on the hottest days.
Colorado’s baseball team is the worst, but the ballpark is super fun, and sometimes there will be deals on tickets just get people in the stands to support the Rockies. More excitingly, I’m told there’s talk of getting a National Women’s Soccer League team as early as 2026. That would be the best.
Denver has spells of no rain, then monsoon-like downpours with really no warning to speak of, but he “humidity” created from the rain on a hot day is ideal for growing tomatoes. I had to struggle to refrain from laughing the other day when someone remarked to me “it’s really humid today.” Madam, if you didn’t just walk outside and immediately start pouring sweat, and feel like you were breathing through a towel soaked in hot water, I don’t think “humid” is the word you’re looking for.
Denver has a housing crisis and astronomic rent rates, but there are also complexes with reasonable rents for very nice digs, like ours, that will offer every opportunity to help tenants thrive, like classes on wellness and finance, opportunities to build community, turkey giveaways at Thanksgiving, and a giftwrapping station in the Leasing Office during the holidays.
Denver evidentally doesn’t believe in hummingbird cake because I can’t find it on any of the diner menus, or in any bakeries so far. There’s not a silver lining to that. At all.
Though the cloudy times have been difficult, the silver linings far outweigh the clouds. Redeemer Pizza has a fried artichoke sandwich that I think about all the time since the one time I had it. Our gym has a sauna, hot tub, and massage chairs, and a workout cinema where you can walk on the treadmill while watching a movie. There’s a Michaels on my way home from work, noted Native American theologian Tink Tinker shops at our Whole Foods, and our top-floor apartment has skylights and a working fireplace.
There’s a Green Chili and Frijoles Festival in Pueblo every September which we attended last year. We won’t get to attend this year because I was invited to preach at the American Baptists of the Rocky Mountains Annual Gathering happening at the same time. There’s also a Choctoberfest, which we will definitely be attending.
We got lucky with tickets to Hamilton, also in October, and while none of our libraries could possibly rival the Downtown Durham library, they’ll do. The Iliff School of Theology library is very hospitable and I’ll spend my days off there writing my thesis.
Not every cloud has a silver lining, but for the ones that do, where are you finding the silver lining on your cloudy days?